/ 


THE    SABLE    CLOUD 

• 

A  SOUTHERN  TALE, 

WITH    NORTHERN    COMMENTS. 


BY    THE    AUTHOR    OF 
"A  SOUTH-SIDE  VIEW  OF  SLAVERY." 


"  I  did  not  err,  there  does  a  sable  cloud 
Turn  forth  her  silver  lining  on  the  night." 

MILTON'S  COMUS. 


BOSTON: 
TICK  NOR    AND     FIELDS. 

M  DCCC  LXI. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1861,  by 

TlCKNOR  AND   FIELDS, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


RIVERSIDE,   CAMBRIDGE: 
STEREOTYPED    AND    PRINTED    BY    H.  0.  HOUGHTON. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
DEATH  AND  BURIAL  OF  A  SLAVE'S  INFANT     .     .    1 

CHAPTER  II. 
NORTHERN  COMMENTS  ON  SOUTHERN  LIFE      .     .5 

CHAPTER  III. 
MORBID  NORTHERN  CONSCIENCE 32 

CHAPTER  IV. 
RESOLUTIONS  FOR  A  CONVENTION     .     .     .     .53 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE     GOOD     NORTHERN    LADY'S     LETTER     FROM     Tllfi 

SOUTH 59 

CHAPTER  VI. 
QUESTIONS   AND   ANSWERS 118 

CHAPTER  VII. 

OWNERSHIP     IN    MAN.  —  THE     OLD     TESTAMENT     SLA 
VERY          .  .  .  150 


Ml.10125 


iv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAGE 
THE    TENURE 177 

CHAPTER  IX. 

DISCUSSION  IN  PHILEMON'S  CHURCH  AT  THE  RETURN 

OF  ONESIMUS 205 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE    FUTURE  .    239 


THE    SABLE    CLOUD. 


DEATH    AND    BURIAL    OF    A    SLAVE'S    INFANT. 

The  small  and  great  are  there,  and  the  servant  is  free  from  his  master." 

SOUTHERN  gentleman,  who  was  visiting 
in  New  York,  sent  me,  with  his  reply  to  my 
inquiries  for  the  welfare   of  his   family  at 
home,  the  following  letter  which  he  had  just 
received  from  one  of  his  married  daughters  in  the  South. 
The  reader  will  be  so  kind  as  to  take  the  assurance 
which  the  writer  hereby  gives  him,  that  the  letter  was 
received  under  the  circumstances  now  stated,  and  that  it 
is  not  a  fiction.     Certain  names  and  the  date  only  are, 
for  obvious  reasons,  omitted. 

THE    LETTER. 

MY  DEAR  FATHER, — 

You  have  so  recently  heard  from  and  about  those  of 
us  left  here,  and  that  in  a  so  much  more  satisfactory  way 
than  through  letters,  that  it  scarcely  seems  worth  while 
to  write  just  yet.  But  Mary  left  Kate's  poor  little  baby 


2  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

in  such  a  pitiable  state,  that  I  think  it  will  be  a  relief  to 
all  to  hear  that  its  sufferings  are  ended.  It  died  about 
ten  o'clock  the  night  that  she  left  us,  very  quietly  and 
without  a  struggle,  and  at  sunset  on  Friday  we  laid  it  in 
its  last  resting-place.  My  husband  and  I  went  out  in 
the  morning  to  select  the  spot  for  its  burial,  and  finding 
the  state,  of,  aifairs,  in  the  cemetery,  we  chose  a  portion 
of  grctunct^anq:  f$l  jiqfve  it  inclosed  with  a  railing.  They 
have  been  very*ca*reless  in  the  management  of  the  ground, 
$njl  *l£ai^e*»  allotted*  rfeYsons  to  inclose  and  bury  in  any 
shape  ^iMvaj^they'dioSe"*  so  that  the  whole  is  cut  up  in  a 
way  that  makes  it  difficult  to  find  a  place  where  two  or 
three  graves  could  be  put  near  each  other.  We  did  find 
one  at  last,  however,  about  the  size  of  the  Hazel  Wood 
lots  ;  and  we  will  inclose  it  at  once,  so  that  when  another, 
either  from  our  own  family  or  those  of  the  other  branches, 
wants  a  resting-place,  there  shall  not  be  the  same  trouble. 
Poor  old  Timmy  lies  there;  but  it  is  in  a  part  of  the 
grounds  where,  the  sexton  tells  us,  the  water  rises  within 
three  feet  of  the  surface  ;  so,  of  course,  we  did  not  go 
there  for  this  little  grave.  His  own  family  selected  his 
burial-place,  and  probably  did  not  think  of  this. 

Kate  takes  her  loss  very  patiently,  though  she  says 
that  she  had  no  idea  how  much  she  would  grieve  after 
the  child.  It  had  been  sick  so  long  that  she  said  she 
wanted  to  have  it  go  ;  but  I  knew  when  she  said  it  that 
she  did  not  know  what  the  parting  would  be.  It  is  not 
the  parting  alone,  but  it  is  the  horror  of  the  grave,  —  the 
tender  child  alone  in  the  far  off  gloomy  burial-ground, 
the  heavy  earth  piled  on  the  tender  little  breast,  the  help 
lessness  that  looked  to  you  for  protection  which  you  could 
not  give,  and  the  emptiness  of  the  home  to  which  you 
return  when  the  child  is  gone.  He  who  made  a  mother's 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  3 

heart  and  they  \vho  have  borne  it,  alone  can  tell  the 
unutterable  pain  of  all  this.  The  little  child  is  so  care 
fully  and  tenderly  watched  over  and  cherished  while  it  is 
with  you,  —  and  then  to  leave  it  alone  in  the  dread  grave 
where  the  winds  and  the  rain  beat  upon  it !  I  know  they 
do  not  feel  it,  but  since  mine  has  been  there,  I  have  never 
felt  sheltered  from  the  storms  when  they  come.  The 
rain  seems  to  fall  on  my  bare  heart.  I  have  said  more 
than  I  meant  to  have  said  on  this  subject,  and  have  left 
myself  little  heart  to  write  of  anything  else.  Tell  Mam 
my  that  it  is  a  great  disappointment  to  me  that  her 
name  is  not  to  have  a  place  in  my  household.  I  was 
always  so  pleased  with  the  idea  that  my  Susan  and  little 
Cygnet  should  grow  up  together  as  the  others  had  done  ; 
but  it  seems  best  that  it  should  not  be  so,  or  it  would  not 
have  been  denied.  Tell  Mary  that  Chloe  staid  that  night 
with  Kate,  and  has  been  kind  to  her.  All  are  well  at 
her  house. 

Of  the  persons  named  in  this  letter, 

KATE  is  a  slave-mother,  belonging  to  the  lady  who 
writes  the  letter. 

CYGNET  was  Kate's  babe. 

MAMMY  is  a  common  appellation  for  a  slave-nurse. 
The  Mammy  to  whom  the  message  in  the  letter  is  sent 
was  nursery-maid  when  the  writer  of  the  letter  and  sev 
eral  brothers  and  sisters  were  young;  and,  more  than 
this,  she  was  maid  to  their  mother  in  early  years.  She 
is  still  in  this  gentleman's  family.  Her  name  is  Cygnet ; 
Kate's  babe  was  named  for  her. 

MARY  is  the  lady's  married  sister. 

CHLOE  is  Mary's  servant. 


4  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

THE  incidental  character  of  this  letter  and  the  way  in 
which  it  came  to  me,  gave  it  a  special  charm.  Some 
recent  traveller,  describing  his  sensations  at  Heidelberg 
Castle,  speaks  of  a  German  song  which  he  heard,  at  the 
moment,  from  a  female  at  some  distance  and  out  of  sight. 
This  letter,  like  that  song,  derives  much  of  its  effect  from 
the  unconsciousness  of  the  author  that  it  would  reach  a 
stranger. 

Having  read  this  letter  many  times,  always  with  the 
same  emotions  as  at  first,  I  resolved  to  try  the  effect  of 
it  upon  my  friend,  A.  Freeman  North.  He  is  an  upright 
man,  much  sought  after  in  the  settlement  of  estates,  es 
pecially  where  there  are  fiduciary  trusts.  Placing  the 
letter  in  his  hands,  I  asked  him,  when  he  should  have 
read  it,  to  put  in  writing  his  impressions  and  reflections. 
The  result  will  be  found  in  the  next  chapter.  Mrs. 
North,  also,  will  engage  the  reader's  kind  attention. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 


CHAPTER   II. 

NORTHERN    COMMENTS    ON    SOUTHERN    LIFE. 

"As  blind  men  use  to  bear  their  noses  higher 
Than  those  that  have  their  eyes  and  sight  entire." 

HUDIBRAS. 

"  One  woman  reads  another's  character 
Without  the  tedious  trouble  of  decyphering." 

BEN  JONSON.    New  Inn. 

SO  then,  this  is  a  Southern  heart  which  prompts  these 
loving,  tender  strains.  This  lady  is  a  slave-holder. 
It  is  a  slave  toward  whom  this  fellow-feeling,  this  gen 
tleness  of  pity,  these  acts  of  loving-kindness,  these  yearn 
ings  of  compassion,  these  respectful  words,  and  all  this 
care  and  assiduity,  flow  forth. 

Is  she  not  some  singular  exception  among  the  people 
of  her  country ;  some  abnormal  product,  an  accidental 
grace,  a  growth  of  luxuriant  richness  in  a  deadly  soil,  or, 
at  least,  is  .she  not  like  Jenny  Lind  among  singers  ? 
Surely  we  shall  not  look  upon  her  like  again.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  find  even  here  at  the  North,  —  the  humane 
North,  nay,  even  among  those  who  have  solemnly  conse 
crated  themselves  as  "  the  friends  of  the  slave,"  and  who 
"  remember  them  that  are  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them," 
—  a  heart  more  loving  and  good,  affections  more  natural 
and  pure.  I  am  surprised.  This  was  a  slave-babe.  Its 
mother  was  this  lady's  slave.  I  am  confused.  This  con- 


6  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

tradicts  ray  previous  information  ;  it  sets  at  nought  my 
ideas  upon  a  subject  which  I  believed  I  thoroughly  un 
derstood. 

A  little  negro  slave-babe,  it  seems,  is  dead,  and  its 
owner  and  mistress  is  acting  and  speaking  as  Northern 
ers  do  !  Yes,  as  Northerners  do  even  when  their  own 
daughters'  babes  lie  dead  ! 

The  letter  must  be  a  forgery.  No  ;  here  it  is  before 
me,  in  the  handwriting  of  the  lady,  post-marked  at  the 
place  of  her  residence.  But  is  it  not,  after  all,  a  fiction  ? 
I  can  believe  almost  anything  sooner  than  that  I  am  mis 
taken  in  the  opinions  and  feelings  which  are  contradicted 
by  this  letter.  In  the  spirit  of  Hume's  argument  against 
the  miracles  of  the  Bible,  I  feel  disposed,  almost,  to  urge 
that  it  would  be  a  greater  miracle  that  the  course  of 
nature  at  the  South  in  a  slave-holder's  heart  should  thus 
be  set  aside  than  that  there  should  not  be,  in  some  way, 
deception  about  this  letter.  But  still,  here  is  the  letter  ; 
and  it  is  written  to  her  father,  whom  she  could  not  de 
ceive,  whom  she  had  no  motive,  no  wish,  to  delude. 
Had  it  been  written  to  a  Northerner,  I  could  have  sur 
mised  that  she  was  attempting  to  make  false  impressions 
about  slavery,  and  its  influence  on  the  slave-holder.  Why 
should  she  tell  her  father  this  simple  tale,  unless  real  af 
fection  for  the  babe  and  its  mother  were  impelling  her  ? 
This  tries  my  faith.  It  is  like  an  undesigned  coincidence 
in  holy  writ,  which  used  so  to  stagger  my  unbelief.  Pos 
sibly,  however,  —  for  I  must  maintain  my  previous  con 
victions  if  I  can,  —  possibly  her  father  is  such  as  our 
anti-slavery  lecturers  and  writers  declare  a  slave-holder 
naturally  to  be,  and  his  daughter,  herself  a  mother,  is 
seeking  to  touch  his  heart  and  turn  him  from  his  cruel 
ties  as  a  slave-holder  by  showing  him,  in  this  indirect, 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  7 

beautiful  manner,  that  slave-mothers  have  the  feelings  of 
human  beings.  Perhaps  I  may  therefore  compromise 
this  matter  by  allowing,  on  one  hand,  that  the  daughter 
is  all  that  she  appears  to  be,  and  claiming,,  on  the  other, 
that  the  father  is  all  that  a  slave-holder  oughts  to  be  to 
verify  our  Northern  theories.  But  she  herself  is  ja  slave 
holder,  and  therefore  by  our  theory  she  ought  to  be  im- 
bruted.  I  beg  her  pardon,  arid  that  of  her  father;  but 
they  must  consider  how  hard  it  is  for  us  at  the  North  to 
conquer  all  our  prejudices  even  under  the  influence  of 
such  a  demonstration  as  her  letter.  I  ask  one  simple 
question  :  Is  not  this  slave-babe,  (and  her  mother,)  of 
"the  down-trodden,"  and  is  not  this  lady  one  of  the  down- 
treading  ?  And  yet  she  weeps,  —  not  because,  as  I 
would  have  supposed,  she  had  lost  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  in  the  child,  but  as  though  she  loved  it  like  the 
sick  and  dying  child  of  a  fellow-creature,  of  a  mother  like 
herself.  Now,  who  at  the  North  ever  hears  of  such  a 
thing  in  slavery  ?  The  old  New  York  Tabernacle  could 
have  said,  It  is  not  in  me ;  —  the  modern  Boston  Music 
Hall  says,  It  is  not  in  me.  None  of  the  antislavery 
papers,  political  or  religious,  say,  We  have  heard  the 
fame  thereof  with  our  ears.  Our  Northern  instructors 
on  the  subject  of  slavery,  the  orators,  the  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabins,  "  The  Scholar  an  Agitator,"  have  never  taught  us 
to  believe  this.  The  South,  we  are  instructed  to  think, 
is  a  Golgotha,  a  valley  of  Hinnom  ;  compacts  with  it  are 
covenants  with  hell.  But  here  is  one  holy  angel  with  its 
music ;  a  ministering  spirit ;  but  is  she  a  Lot  in  Sodom  ? 
Abdiel  in  the  revolted  principality  ?  a  desolate,  mourning 
Rizpah  on  that  rock  which  overlooks  four  millions  of 
slaves  and  their  tortures  ? 

In  a  less  instructed  state  of  mind  on  this  subject,  *  I 


8  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

should  once  have  said,  on  reading  this  letter,  —  This  is 
slavery.  Here  is  a  view  of  life  at  the  South.  As  a 
traveller  accidentally  catches  a  sight  of  a  family  around 
their  table,  and  domestic  life  gleams  upon  him  for  a  mo 
ment  ;  as  the  opening  door  of  a  church  suffers  a  few 
notes  of  the  psalm  to  reach  the  ear  of  one  at  a  distance, 
this  letter,  written  evidently  amidst  household  duties  and 
cares,  discloses,  in  a  touching  manner,  the  domestic  rela 
tions  of  Southern  families  and  their  servants  wherever 
Christianity  prevails.  It  is  one  strain  of  the  ordinary 
music  of  life  in  ten  thousands  of  those  households,  falling 
accidentally  upon  our  ears,  and  giving  us  truthful,  artless 
impressions,  such  as  labored  statements  and  solemn  dep 
ositions  would  not  so  well  convey,  and  which  theories, 
counter-statements,  arguments,  and  invectives  never  can 
refute.  Our  senior  pastor  would  say  that  the  letter  is 
like  the  Epistles  of  John,  —  not  a  doctrinal  exposition, 
but  a  breathing  forth  of  the  spirit  which  the  evangelical 
history  had  inspired.  I  have  come  to  know  more,  how 
ever,  than  I  did  when  I  could  have  had  such  amiable  but 
unenlightened  feelings.  I  have  read  the  "  Key  to  Uncle 
Tom "  and  the  "  Barbarism  of  Slavery." 

Still,  I  am  sorely  puzzled.  "  Kate,"  she  says,  "  wanted 
to  have  it  go,  it  had  been  sick  so  long ;  but  I  knew,  when 
she  said  it,  she  did  not  know  what  the  parting  would  be." 

"  The  parting ! "  Has  she  read  our  Northern  abstracts 
and  versions  of  the  Dred  Scott  Decision,  and  are  there, 
in  her  view,  any  rights  in  a  negro  which  she  is  bound  to 
respect  ?  Has  she  not  heard  that  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  has  absolved  her  from  all  her  feelings 

O 

of  humanity  ?  "  The  parting  ! "  Where  has  she  lived 
not  to  know  how,  according  to  our  lecturers,  families  are 
parted  at  the  auction-block  in  the  Southern  States  with- 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  9 

out  the  least  compunction  ?  We  are  constantly  told,  —  has 
she  not  heard  it  ?  —  that  the  slave  at  the  South  is  a  mere 
"chattel,"  and  that  a  slave-child  is  bought  and  sold  as 
recklessly  as  a  calf,  and  that  a  parting  between  a  slave- 
mother  and  her  children,  sold  and  separated  for  life,  is  an 
occurrence  as  familiar  as  the  separation  of  animals  and 
their  young,  and  no  more  regarded  by  slave-holders  than 
divorcements  in  the  barn-yard.  This  being  so,  it  must 
follow  that  when  a  slave-babe  dies,  the  only  sorrow  in  the 
hearts  of  the  white  owners  is  such  as  they  feel  when  a 
colt  is  kicked  to  death  or  a  heifer  is  choked.  This  must 
be  so,  if  all  is  true  which  is  meant  to  be  conveyed  when 
we  are  told  so  often  at  the  North  that  the  slave  is  a  mere 
"  chattel."  Therefore  I  am  puzzled  by  this  lady's  tears 
for  the  mother  of  this  little  black  babe.  She  says  of  the 
mother  of  that  poor  little  negro  infant  slave,  "  I  knew  she 
did  not  dream  what  the  parting  would  be."  I  repeat  it, 
my  theory  of  slavery,  that  which  I  hold  in  common  with 
all  enlightened  friends  of  freedom,  requires  that  this  lady 
should  have  a  debased,  imbruted  nature,  for  she  owns 
human  beings,  has  made  property  of  God's  image  in 
man.  And  now  I  feel  creeping  over  me  a  dreadful 
temptation  to  think  that  one  may  hold  fellow-creatures  in 
bondage  and  yet  be  really  humane,  gentle,  and  as  good 
as  a  Northerner !  What  fearful  changes  in  politics  would 
come  about  should  our  people  believe  this  !  It  cannot  be 
that  our  great  party  of  Freedom  can  ever  go  to  pieces 
?nd  disappoint  the  hopes  of  the  world ;  yet  this  would  be 
the  case,  if  the  feelings  stirred  by  this  letter  should  gain  a 
general  acceptance.  I  cannot  gainsay  the  facts.  Here 
is  the  letter.  May  it  never  see  the  light ;  people  are 
much  more  influenced  by  such  things  than  by  mere  logic, 
and  oh,  what  would  befall  the  nation  should  our  Northern 
1* 


10  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

excitement  against  slavery  cease,  and  should  we  leave 
the  whole  subject  to  the  South  and  to  God  !  What  if 
people  should  come  to  believe  that  the  Southerners  — 
fifteen  or  sixteen  States  of  this  Union  —  are  as  humane, 
Christian,  and  conscientious  as  the  North  ! 

Who  will  resolve  my  painful  doubts  ?  I  do  crave  to 
know  what  possible  motive  this  lady  could  have  had  in 
taking  so  much  thought  and  care  about  the  last  resting- 
place  of  this  poor  little  black  "  chattel."  You  and  your 
husband,  dear  lady,  seem  to  be  as  kind  and  painstaking 
as  though  you  knew  that  a  fellow-creature  of  yours  was 
returning,  "  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust." 

One  great  Northern  "  friend  of  the  slave  "  tells  us  that 
the  slaves  at  the  South  are  degraded  so  to  the  level  of 
brutes,  that  baptizing  them  and  admitting  them  to  Chris 
tian  ordinances  is  about  the  same  as  though  he  should 
say  to  his  dogs,  "  I  baptize  thee,  Bose,  in,"  etc.  This,  he 
tells  us,  he  repeated  many  times  here,  and  in  England.1 
Nothing  but  love  of  truth  and  just  hatred  of  "  the  sum  of  all 
villanies"  could,  of  course,  have  made  him  venture  so 
near  the  verge  of  unpardonable  blasphemy  as  to  speak 
thus.  Yet  your  feelings  and  behavior  toward  this  babe 
are  in  direct  conflict  with  his  theory.  Pray  whom  am  I 
to  believe  ? 

Perhaps  now  I  have  hit  upon  a  solution.  Some  peo 
ple,  Walter  Scott  is  an  instance,  bury  their  favorite  dogs 
with  all  the  honors  of  a  decorated  sepulture.  Rather 
than  believe  that  your  slaves  are  commonly  regarded  by 
you  as  your  fellow-creatures,  having  rights  which  you 
love  to  consider,  or,  that  you  do  not  mercilessly  dispose 
of  them  to  promote  your  selfish  interests,  we,  the  North- 

1  See  "  Sigma's  "  communications  to  the  Boston  Transcript,  August, 
1857. 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  11 

ern  people,  who  have  had  the  very  best  of  teachers  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  learnedly  theoretical,  reasoning  from 
the  eternal  principles  of  right,  would  incline  to  believe 
that  your  interest  in  the  burial  of  this  little  slave-babe 
was  merely  that  which  your  own  child  would  feel  on  see 
ing  her  kitten  carefully  buried  at  the  foot  of  the  apple- 
tree. 

One  thing,  however,  suggests  a  difficulty  in  feeling  our 
way  to  this  conclusion.  I  mention  it  because  of  the  per 
fect  candor  which  guides  the  sentiments  and  feelings  of 
all  Northern  people  in  speaking  of  slavery  and  slave 
holders. 

The  difficulty  is  this:  Who  was  "poor  oldTimmy"? 
Some  old  slave  in  your  father's  family,  I  apprehend. 
You  seem  sad  at  finding  that  his  grave  is  not  in  the  best 
place.  "  The  water  rises  within  three  feet  of  the  sur 
face;" —  we  infer,  from  the  regret  which  you  seem  to  feel 
at  this,  that  you  have  some  care  and  pity  for  your  old 
slaves,  which  extends  even  to  their  graves.  But  we  had 
well  nigh  borrowed  strength  to  our  prejudices  from  this 
place  of  old  Timmy's  grave,  and  were  saying  with  our 
selves,  Thus  the  slave-holders  bury  their  slaves  where  the 
water  may  overflow  them ;  but  you  seem  to  apologize  to 
your  father  for  Timmy's  having  such  a  poor  place  for  his 
remains  by  saying,  "  His  own "  (Timmy's)  "  family  se 
lected  his  burying-place,  and  probably  did  not  think  of 
this."  Very  kind  in  you,  dear  madam,  to  speak  so.  "  The 
friends  of  the  slave  "  are  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  such 
consideration.  You  say,  "  His  own  family  selected  his 
burying-place."  Do  slaves  have  such  a  liberty  ?  Can 
they  go  and  come  in  their  burying-grounds  and  choose 
places  for  the  graves  of  their  kindred  ?  This  is  being 
full  as  good  to  your  servants,  in  this  particular,  as  we  are 


12  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

at  the  North  to  our  domestics.  You  thought  poor  old 
Timmy's  grave  was  not  in  a  spot  sufficiently  choice  for 
this  little  babe's  grave,  and,  it  seems,  you  inclosed  a  spot, 
and  inaugurated  it  by  the  burial  of  this  child,  for  the  last 
resting-place  of  other  babes,  the  kindred  of  this  child  and 
of  your  other  servants.  This  looks  as  though  there  were 
some  domestic  permanence  in  some  parts  of  the  South 
among  the  servants  of  a  household  ;  and  as  though  the  birth 
and  death  of  a  child  have  some  other  associations  with  you 
than  those  which  belong  to  the  breeding  and  sale  of  poul 
try.  We  are  truly  glad  to  think  of  all  this.  It  is  ex 
ceedingly  pleasant  to  have  a  good  opinion  of  people,  much 
more  so  than  to  believe  evil  of  them,  and  to  accuse  them 
wrongfully. 

In  speaking  thus  to  you,  I  make  myself  think  —  and  I 
hope  I  do  not  seem  self-complacent  in  saying  it,  for  you 
must  have  learned  from  the  tone  of  my  remarks,  if  from 
no  other  source,  that  self-complacency  is  not  a  Northern 
characteristic,  especially  in  our  feelings  toward  the  South 
—  but  I  make  myself  think,  by  this  candid  admission  of 
what  seems  good  in  you,  of  a  venturesome  remark  by 
Paul  the  Apostle  to  your  brother  slave-holder  Philemon,  in 
that  epistle  in  which  he  sends  back  the  slave  Onesimus,  — 
a  very  trying  epistle  to  us  at  the  North,  though,  on  the 
whole,  many  of  us  keep  up  our  confidence  in  inspiration 
notwithstanding  this  epistle,  especially  as  it  is  explained 
to  us  by  some  at  the  North  who  know  most  of  Southern 
slavery,  our  inbred  hatred  of  which,  it  is  insisted  by  some 
of  our  best  scholars,  should  control  even  our  interpreta 
tion  of  the  word  of  God.  Paul  speaks  to  this  slave-holder, 
Philemon,  of  "the  acknowledging  of  every  good  thing 
which  is  in  you,"  —  which  we  think  was  exceedingly  chari 
table,  considering  that  it  was  said  to  a  holder  of  slaves  ;  and 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  13 

perhaps  quite  too  much  so ;  for  the  truth  is  not  to  be  spok 
en  at  all  times,  and  especially  not  of  those  who  hold  their 
fellow-men  in  bondage.  I  am  often  constrained  to  think 
that  it  was  an  inconsiderate,  unwise  thing  in  the  Apostle 
to  take  this  favorable  view  of  that  slave-tiolder ;-  he  may, 
ho\vever,  have  written  by  permission,  not  by  command 
ment  ;  that  would  save  his  inspiration  from  reproach  ;  for 
had  he  been  inspired  in  writing  this  epistle,  I  ask  myself, 
Would  he  not  have  foreseen  our  great  Northern  conflict 
with  the  mightiest  injustice  upon  which  the  sun  ever 
shone  ?  and  would  he  not  have  foreseen  how  much  aid 
and  comfort  that  epistle  would  give  the  friends  of  oppres 
sion  on  this  continent  ?  One  first  truth  in  the  minds  of 
the  most  eminent  "friends  of  freedom  "  is  this:  "  Slavery 
is  the  sum  of  all  villanies."  Other  truths  follow  in  their 
natural  order ;  among  them  the  question  of  the  inspiration 
of  the  Bible  has  a  place  ;  but  slavery  leads  some  of  them 
to  think  lightly,  and  to  speak  disparagingly,  of  the  Bible, 
because  it  comes  in  conflict  with  their  theories  regarding 
slave-holding,  which  is  certainly  not  always  referred  to  in 
Scripture  in  the  tone  which  we  prefer.  There  was  the 
Apostle  James,  too,  writing  about  "  works  "  in  the  same 
unguarded  manner  as  Paul  when  speaking  of  slaves  and 
slave-holders.  Pity  that  he  could  not  have  let  "  works  " 
alone,  seeing  it  was  so  important  for  the  other  Apostles  to 
establish  the  one  idea  of  justification  by  faith.  He  made 
great  trouble  for  Luther  and  his  companions  in  their  con 
test  with  Popery.  Luther  had  to  reject  his  epistle  ;  "  stra- 
minea  epistola "  he  called  it,  —  an  epistle  of  straw,  — 
weak,  worthless  ;  and  he  denied  its  inspiration,  because  it 
conflicted  with  his  doctrine  of  "  faith  alone."  So  much 
for  trying  to  be  candid  and  just,  and  for  presenting  the 
other  side  of  a  subject,  or  of  a  man,  when  the  spirit  of 


14  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

the  age  is  averse  to  it,  and  candor  is  in  danger  of  being 
looked  upon  as  a  time-serving  thing.  Neither  Paul  nor 
James,  however,  had  felt  the  tonic,  bracing  effect  of  good 
anti-slavery  principles,  or  they  would  not  have  written,  the 
one  such  a  letter  to  a  slave-holder,  and  the  other  such  a 
back-oar  argument  against  "faith  alone."  However,  I 
am  disposed  to  think  well  of  Paul  and  James,  notwith 
standing  these  the  great  errors  of  their  lives.  Indeed 
I  can  almost  forgive  them,  when  I  am  reading  other  things 
which  they  said  and  did.  You  will  please  acknowledge, 
therefore,  my  dear  madam,  that  in  giving  you  credit  for 
kind  feelings  toward  a  poor  slave  and  its  mother,  we  are 
disposed  to  be  just ;  yet  I  beg  of  you  not  to  think  that  I 
abate  one  jot  or  tittle  of  my  belief  that,  in  theory,  slavery 
is  "  the  sum  of  all  villanies,"  "  an  enormous  wrong,"  "  a 
stupendous  injustice." 

I  have  just  been  reading  your  letter  once  more,  and 
the  foolish  tears  pester  me  so  that  I  can  scarce  see  out  of 
my  eyes.  I  find,  dear  madam,  that  you  have  known  a 
bitter  sorrow  which  so  many  parents  are  carrying  with 
them  to  the  grave.  Your  words  make  me  think  so  of  lit 
tle  graves  elsewhere,  that  I  forget  for  the  time  that  you 
are  a  slave-holder.  Nor  can  I  hardly  believe  that  your 
touching  words  are  suggested  by  the  death  of  a  slave's 
babe,  when  you  speak  of  "  the  heavy  earth  piled  on  the 
tender  little  breast."  O  my  dear  lady !  has  a  slave's 
babe  "a  tender  little  breast"?  Then  you  really  think 
so  !  And  you  a  slave-holder  !  "  Border  Ruffianism,"  per 
haps,  has  not  yet  reached  your  heart ;  and  yet  I  suppose 
—  forgive  me  if  I  do  you  wrong  —  that  slave-holders' 
hearts  generally  need  only  to  be  removed  to  the  "  bor 
ders,"  to  manifest  all  their  native  "  ruffianism."  Can  you 
tell  me  whether  there  are  any  mothers  in  Missouri  (near 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  15 

Kansas)  who  feel  toward  their  slaves  who  are  mothers,  as 
you  do  ?  There  are  so  many  people  from  the  North  in 
Kansas  (near  Missouri)  who  have  gone  thither  to  prevent 
you  and  your  brethren  and  sisters  from  owning  a  fellow- 
creature  there,  that  I  trust  their  influence  will  in- time  ex 
tend  through  all  Missouri,  and  that  white  mothers  in  that 
State  will  everywhere  have  such  humane  feelings  toward 
the  blacks  as  we  and  you  possess. 

All  that  I  ask  of  you  now,  is,  that  you  give  Kate  her 
liberty  at  once.  Oh,  do  not  say,  as  I  fancy  you  will, 
There  is  not  a  happier  being  than  Kate  in  all  the  land  of 
freedom.  "  Fiat  justitia,"  dear  madam,  "  ruat  crelum." 
I  cannot  conceive  how  being  "  owned  "  is  anything  but  a 
curse.  Really,  we  forget  the  miseries  of  the  Five  Points, 
and  of  the  dens  in  New  York,  Boston,  Buffalo,  and  other 
places  at  the  North,  the  hordes  in  the  city  and  State 
institutions  in  New  York  Harbor,  Deer  Island,  Boston, 
and  all  such  things,  in  our  extreme  pity  for  poor  slave- 
mothers,  like  Kate,  whose  children,  when  they  get  to  be 
about  nine  or  ten  years  old,  are  liable  to  be  sold.  Honest 
Mrs.  Striker  came  to  work  in  our  family,  not  long  since, 
leaving  her  young  child  at  home  in  the  care  of  a  young 
woman  who  watched  it  for  ten  cents  a  day.  I  said  to 
her,  Dear  Mrs.  Striker,  are  you  not  glad  that  you  live  in 
a  free  state,  and  not  where,  when  you  return  like  a  bird 
to  its  nest  at  night,  you  may  find  your  little  one  carried 
off,  you  know  not  where,  by  some  man-stealer,  you  know 
not  whom  ?  —  We  honor  your  kind  feelings,  madam,  but 
you  are  not  aware,  probably,  what  overflowing  love  and 
tender  pity  there  is  among  us  Northerners,  toward  your 
slaves  and  their  children.  We  are  disinterested,  too  ;  for 
we  nearly  forget  our  own  black  people  here  at  the  North, 
and  more  especially  in  Canada,  to  care  for  you  and  your 


16  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

people.  And  though  hundreds  of  innocent  young  people 
are  decoyed  into  our  Northern  cities  yearly  from  the  coun 
try  and  are  made  the  victims  of  unhallowed  passions,  yet 
the  thought  that  some  of  your  young  people  on  those  re 
mote,  solitary  plantations,  can  be  compelled  by  their  mas 
ters  to  do  wrong  on  pain  of  being  sold,  fills  us  with  such 
unaffected  distress  that  we  think  but  little  of  voluntary  or 
compulsory  debauchery  in  our  own  cities  ;  but  we  think 
of  dissolving  the  Union  to  rid  ourselves  of  seeming  com 
plicity  with  such  wickedness  as  we  see  to  be  inherent  in 
the  relation  of  master  and  slave.  We  at  the  North 
should  all  be  wicked  if  we  had  such  opportunities ;  we 
know,  therefore,  that  you  must  be.  Because  you  will  not' 
let  us  reprove  you  for  it,  we  cut  off  our  correspondence 
with  your  Southern  ecclesiastical  bodies.  But  I  began  to 
speak  of  little  graves.  You  will  see  by  my  involuntary 
wandering  from  them  how  full  our  hearts  are  of  your 
colored  people,  and  how  self-forgetful  we  are  in  our  de 
sires  and  efforts  to  do  them  good.  And  yet  some  of  your 
Southern  people  can  find  it  in  their  hearts  to  set  at  nought 
these  our  most  sacred  Northern  antipathies  and  commis 
erations  ! 

But  I  constantly  hear  some  of  your  words  in  your  let 
ter  striking  their  gentle,  sad  chimes  in  my  ears.  "  It  is 
not  the  parting  alone,  but  the  helplessness  that  looked  to 
you  for  protection  which  you  could  not  give  ;  "  "  the  emp 
tiness  of  the  home  to  which  you  return  when  the  child  is 
gone." 

Now,  for  such  words,  I  solemnly  declare  that,  in  my 
opinion,  you,  dear  madam,  never  had  a  helpless  slave  look 
to  you  for  protection  which  you  could  give  and  which 
you  refused  ;  you,  surely,  never  made  a  slave's  home 
desolate  by  taking  her  child  from  her.  No,  such  words 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  17 

as  those  which  I  have  just  quoted  from  your  letter,  are 
a  perfect  assurance  that  neither  you  nor  your  kindred, 
within  your  knowledge,  are  guilty  of  ruthless  violations 
of  domestic  ties  among  your  colored  people.  Otherwise, 
you  could  not  write  as  you  do  about  "  desolate  'homes  " 
and  "  the  child  gone."  While  I  read  your  letter  and 
think  of  you,  I  am  reminded  of  those  words :  "  Is  not  this 
he  whom  they  seek  to  kill  ?  "  Why,  if  the  insurgents' 
pikes  were  aimed  at  you  and  your  child,  I  would  almost 
be  willing  to  rush  in  and  receive  them  in  my  own  body. 
Yet  I  would  not  be  known  at  the  North  to  have  spoken 
so  strongly  as  this.  0  my  dear  madam,  if  there  were 
only  fifty  righteous  people  (counting  you)  in  the  South, 
people  who  knew  what  "  desolate  homes "  and  "  the 
child  gone"  mean,  I  should  almost  begin  to  hope  that 
our  Southern  Gomorrah  might  be  spared. 

But  I  fear  that  I  am  trespassing  too  far  away  from  my 
sworn  fealty  to  Northern  opinions  and  feelings.  I  begin 
to  fear  that  I  may  be  tempted  to  be  recreant  to  my  in 
born,  inbred  notions  of  liberty,  while  holding  converse 
with  you,  for  there  is  something  extremely  seductive  to 
a  Northerner  in  slavery;  it  is  like  the  apple  and  the 
serpent  to  the  woman ;  so  that  whoever  goes  to  the 
South,  or  has  anything  to  do  with  slave-holders,  is  apt  to 
lose  his  integrity  ;  there  is  a  Circean  influence  there  for 
Northern  people  ;  thousands  of  once  good,  anti-slavery 
men  now  lie  dead  and  buried  as  to  their  reputations  here  at 
the  North,  in  consequence  of  having  to  do  with  the  seduc 
tive  slave-power ;  they  would  fill  Bonaventura  Cemetery, 
in  Savannah  ;  the  Spanish  moss,  swaying  on  the  limbs  of 
its  trees,  would  be,  in  number,  fit  signals  of  their  sub 
jection  to  what  you  call  right  views  on  the  subject  of 
slavery. 


18  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

Though  I  fear  almost  to  hold  converse  with  you,  yet, 
conscious  of  my  innate  love  of  liberty,  I  venture  to  do 
so.  Bunker  Hill  is  within  twenty  miles  of  my  home. 
When  I  go  to  that  sacred  memorial  of  liberty,  I  strive  to 
fortify  my  soul  afresh  against  the  slave-power.  After 
hearing  favorable  things  said,  in  Boston,  about  the  South, 
I  can  go  to  Faneuil  Hall,  and  there,  the  doors  being 
carefully  shut,  walk  enthusiastically  about  the  room, 
almost  shouting,  "  Sam.  Adams  !  "  "  James  Otis  !  " 
"  Seventy-Six  !  "  "  Shade  of  Warren  !  "  "  No  chains  on 
the  Bay  State  !  "  "  Massachusetts  in  the  van  !  "  "  Give 
me  liberty  or  give  me  death  ! "  I  can  enjoy  the  priv 
ilege  of  looking  frequently  on  certain  majestic  figures 
in  our  American  Apocalypse,  under  the  present  vial, 
—  but  I  need  not  name  them.  I  meet  in  our  book-stores 
with  "  Lays  of  Freedom,"  never  sung  by  such  as  you. 
I  see  in  the  shop-windows  the  inspiring  faces,  in  medal 
lion,  of  those  masterpieces  of  human  nature,  "  the  cham 
pions  of  freedom,"  our  chief  abolitionists  ;  —  and  shall  I, 
can  I,  ever  succumb  to  the  slave-power,  even  though  it 
approach  me  through  the  holy,  all-subduing  charms  of 
woman's  influence  ?  No  !  dear  madam,  ten  thousand 
times,  No  !  "  Slave-power  !  "  to  borrow  Milton's  figure 
when  speaking  of  Ithuriel  and  Satan,  the  word  is  as 
the  touch  of  fire  to  powder,  to  our  brave  anti-slavery 
souls.  You  have,  perhaps,  seen  a  bull  stopping  in  the 
street,  pawing  the  ground,  throwing  the  dust  over  him 
and  covering  himself  with  a  cloud  of  it,  his  nose  close  to 
the  earth,  and  a  low,  bellowing  sound  issuing  from  his 
nostrils.  Your  heart  has  died  within  you  at  the  sight. 
You  have  been  made  to  feel  how  slight  a  defence  is  fan, 
or  sunshade,  against  such  an  antagonist,  though  you 
should  make  them  to  fly  suddenly  open  in  his  face.  No 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  10 

enemy  of  his  was  in  sight,  so  far  as  you  could  perceive  ; 
you  wondered  what  had  excited  his  belligerent  spirit ; 
but  he  saw  at  a  very  great  distance  that  which  you  could 
not  see  ;  he  heard  a  voice  you  could  not  hjear,  giving  oc 
casion  to  this  show  of  prowess.  That  fearful  combatant 
on  the  highway,  dear  madam,  is  the  North,  and  you  are 
the  distant  foe.  You  may  affect  to  smile,  perhaps,  at  the 
valorous  attitudes,  the  show  of  mettle  in  the  bull,  but 
you  have  no  idea,  as  I  had  the  honor  to  say  before,  how 
sturdy  is  our  hatred  of  the  slave-power  and  how  ready 
we  are  to  do  battle  with  it.  We  paw  in  the  valley,  and 
are  not  afraid. 

Never  think  to  delude  us,  my  dear  lady,  with  the 
thought  that  slavery  in  our  Territories  means  such  ladies 
as  you  owning  Kates  and  their  little  babes,  and  having 
such  hearts  toward  them  as  you  seem  to  have  ;  for  that 
would  take  away  a  large  part  of  the  evil  in  slavery.  Nor 
must  you  expect  us,  in  thinking  of  slavery  as  extending  in 
to  our  Territories,  to  picture  to  ourselves  an  accomplished 
gentleman  and  lady  searching  a  cemetery  for  a  spot  to  be 
the  grave  of  a  little  slave-babe,  and  behaving  themselves 
as  though  they  had  feelings  toward  it  and  its  mother  ir 
respective  of  the  market-price  of  slaves.  "  Border  Ruf 
fians  "  are  the  archetypes  of  our  ideas  respecting  all  who 
wish  to  extend  slavery  into  our  Territories.  On  the  score 
of  humanity,  madam,  we  have  no  objection  to  you  and 
your  husband  taking  Kate  and  living  in  Kansas ;  how 
perfectly  harmless  that  might  seem  to  many!  for,  no 
doubt,  you  and  Kate  are  perfectly  happy  as  mistress  and 
servant ;  you  would  need  domestics  there,  and  how  could 
they  and  you  be  better  pleased  than  if  they  and  you  were 
just  as  Kate  and  you  now  are  to  each  other  ?  but,  O  dear 
madam,  that  would  be  slavery,  and  we  are  under  sworn 


20  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

obligations  here  at  the  North  to  oppose  the  owning  of 
a  human  being  with  indiscriminate  hatred.  Say  not  it 
seems  hard  that  if  you  wish  to  live  in  Kansas,  for  exam 
ple,  you  cannot  have  liberty  to  go  there  with  Kate,  who 
is  as  much  attached  to  you,  I  make  no  doubt,  as  any  North 
ern  or  English  servant  is  to  a  household.  Perhaps  it 
does  seem  perfectly  natural  and  harmless,  and  no  doubt 
Kate's  relation  to  you  is  as  gentle  and  pleasant,  almost, 
as  that  of  an  adopted  member  of  a  family,  who  is  half  at 
tendant,  and  half  companion;  this  we  understand.  You 
see  nothing  terrible  in  such  a  relation.  O  dear  madam, 
you  have  the  misfortune  to  have  been  born  under  the 
blinding,  blighting  influence  of  slavery,  and  cannot  see 
things  in  the  true,  just  light  in  which  they  appear  to  us, 
whose  minds  are  unprejudiced  and  clear,  and  whose  moral 
sentiments  on  this  great  subject  are  more  correct  and  ele 
vated.  What  is  making  all  this  trouble  in  our  nation  ? 
I  will  answer  you  in  the  burning  words  of  a  Northern 
clergyman  in  his  speech  at  a  meeting  called  to  sympathize 
with  the  family  of  John  Brown,  after  his  death  by  martyr 
dom  :  "  The  Slave-Power  itself,  standing  up  there  in  all  its 
deformity  in  the  sight  of  Northern  consciences,  —  that  is  the 
cause,  [applause]  and  there  the  responsibility  belongs." l 
Yes,  you  are  sinning  against  the  Northern  conscience  !  It 
is  settled  forever  that  you  are  evil-doers  in  holding  your 
present  relation  to  the  slave.  We  are  bound  to  hem  you 
in  as  by  fire,  till,  like  a  scorpion  so  fenced  about,  you  die 
by  your  own  sting.  We  must  proclaim  liberty  to  your 
captives.  Step  but  one  foot  with  Kate  on  free  soil,  and 
our  watchmen  of  liberty,  set  to  break  every  yoke  and 
help  fugitives  on  their  way  from  the  house  of  bondage, 
will  be  around  you  in  troops,  and  shout  in  her  ear  those 
i  Boston  Conner,  Nov.  26, 1859. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  21 

electrifying  and  beatifying  words,  "  You  are  a  free  wom 
an  !  "  There  her  chains  will  drop  ;  she  will  cease  to  be 
a  slave,  and  become  a  human  being. 

Must  I  refer  to  your  letter  once  more  ?  I  hope  to  de 
stroy  its  spell  over  me.  But  I  wish  at  times. that  I  had 
never  seen  that  letter.  "Tell  Mammy  that  it  is  a  great 
disappointment  to  me  that  her  name  is  not  to  have  a  place 
in  my  household."  Your  little  slave-babe,  Kate's  child, 
you  named  Cygnet,  because  Mammy's  name  is  Cygnet, 
and  she  and  your  mother  grew  up  together,  and  she  has 
been  your  kind,  faithful  servant  and  friend,  as  much 
friend  as  servant,  during  all  your  youth  till  you  were 
married.  And  you  seek  to  perpetuate  her  name  in  your 
own  household,  and  to  have  a  little  Cygnet  grow  up  with 
your  own  little  Susan.  "  I  was  always  pleased  with  the 
idea  that  my  Susan  and  little  Cygnet  should  grow  up  to 
gether  ;  but  it  seems  best  that  it  should  not  be  so,  or  it 
would  not  be  denied."  All  this  is  very  sweet  and  beauti 
ful  ;  but  now  let  me  tell  you,  honestly,  what  the  sponta 
neous  thought  of  a  Northerner  is,  wrhile  meditating  on  such 
an  apparently  lovely  picture.  Here  it  is  :  Suppose  that 
Susan  and  little  Cygnet,  when  both  are  three  years  old, 
are  playing  in  your  front-yard  some  morning,  and  a  cruel 
slave-trader  should  look  over  the  fence,  and  say  to  your 
husband,  "  Fine  little  thing  there,  sir ;  take  a  hunderd 
and  a  ha'f  for  her?"  I  ask,  Would  not  your  husband 
(perhaps  in  need,  just  then,  of  money  to  pay  a  note)  lay 
down  his  newspaper,  invite  the  fellow  in  to  drink,  and  go 
through  the  opening  scene  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  coax 
ing  up  the  fellow's  price ;  and  finally,  would  he  not  sell 
little  Cygnet  while  her  mother  was  out  of  sight,  push  poor 
little  Susan  into  a  room  alone  to  cry  her  eyes  out,  and 
you  and  your  husband  pocket  the  money  ?  Many  of  us 


22  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

at  the  North,  dear  madam,  if  you  will  take  my  unworthy 
self  as  a  specimen,  and  1  am  a  very  moderate  anti-slavery 
man  and  no  fanatic,  are  quite  as  ready  to  believe  such 
things  of  you  as  the  contrary.  We  have  read  "  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin." 

Nothing  could  exceed  the  disgust  and  ridicule  which 
your  letter  would  meet  with  at  the  hands  of  some  of  our 
best  anti-slavery  men.  I  am  thinking  of  it,  just  now, 
as  in  the  hands  of  Rev.  Mr.  Blank.  The  other  day  I 
saw  a  cambric  muslin  handkerchief,  richly  embroidered, 
blow  past  me  out  of  a  child's  carriage.  As  I  turned  to 
get  it,  a  dog  seized  it,  shook  it,  put  both  his  paws  on  it, 
rent  it,  made  rags  of  it,  threw  it  down,  snatched  it  up, 
and  seemed  vexed  that  there  was  no  more  of  it  to  tear. 
So  will  our  abolitionists  serve  your  letter,  should  they 
ever  see  it.  And,  my  dear  madam,  though  I  disapprove 
their  temper  and  language,  yet  I  must  confess  that  I 
sympathize  with  them  in  their  principles,  the  only  differ 
ence  between  them  and  me  being  that  of  social  position 
and  manners.  I  must  tell  you  that,  after  all,  you  are 
probably  unaware  of  the  deception  which  you  are  prac 
tising  on  yourself,  in  supposing  that  you  are  really  as 
loving  and  gentle  toward  a  slave-mother  and  her  child  as 
some  might  infer.  Let  but  a  good  sale  tempt  you  !  I 
wait  to  know  whether  you  would  then  write  such  a  letter. 
We  have  a  ready  answer  to  all  the  kind  and  good  things 
which  are  said  about  you,  in  this,  wrhich  you  will  see 
and  hear  in  all  our  speeches  and  essays,  namely,  "  Sla 
very  is  the  sum  of  all  villanies."  That  is  to  all  our 
thoughts  and  reasonings  about  slavery  what  the  longitude 
of  Greenwich  is  to  navigation.  All  your  clergy,  all  your 
physicians,  all  your  judges  and  lawyers,  all  your  fathers 
and  mothers,  your  gentlemen  and  ladies,  all  your  children, 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  23 

are  heaped  together  by  us  in  one  name,  to  us  an  awful 
name,  —  «  Slave-power."  We  think  about  you  as  we  do 
of  Egypt,  with  Israel  in  bondage. 

And  now  that  allusion  furnishes  me  with  an  argument 
against  your  letter,  which  I  must,  in  conclusion,  and  sore 
ly  against  many  of  my  feelings,  let  fall,  like  a  stone,  upon 
it,  and  crush  it  forever.  Pharaoh's  daughter  was  touched 
with  the  cry  of  the  little  slave-babe,  Moses  ;  but  what 
does  that  prove  ?  that  Egyptian  bondage  was  not  "  an 
enormous  wrong,"  a  "stupendous  injustice,"  "the  sum 
of  all  villanies "  ?  or  that  a  Red  Sea  was  not  already 
waiting  to  swallow  up  the  slave-holders,  horse  and  foot  ? 

You  may  write  a  thousand  such  letters,  all  over  the 
South  ;  but  though  they  delude  me  for  a  while,  it  is  only 
until  the  moisture  which  they  raise  to  my  eyes  from  my 
heart,  by  the  pathos  in  them,  dries  up,  and  leaves  my 
vision  clear  of  all  the  blinding  though  beautiful  mists  of 
that  error  which  has  diffused  itself  over  one  half  of  this 
goodly  land,  and,  I  grieve  to  add,  which  has  fallen  upon 
many  even  here  in  New  England,  recreant  sons  of  liberty, 
traitors  to  the  memories  of  Faneuil  Hall  and  Bunker 
Hill. 


24  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 


LETTER     FROM    MR.    NORTH,    INCLOSING    THE    FOREGOING. 
INFLUENCE    OF    THE    LETTER    UPON    HIS    WIFE. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  A.  BETTERDAY  GUMMING  :  — 

I  have,  as  you  see,  complied  with  your  request,  and 
herewith  I  send  you  my  thoughts  and  feelings  in  view  of 
the  good  Southern  lady's  letter.  I  came  near,  once  or 
twice,  abandoning  some  of  my  long-cherished  principles, 
under  the  influence  of  the  letter  and  of  the  reflections  to 
which  it  gave  rise.  But  I  have  been  enabled  to  retain 
my  integrity.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  letter  has  made 
me  some  trouble  through  its  effect  on  my  wife,  to  whom, 
incautiously,  I  read  it.  Very  soon  after  I  began  to  read, 
I  perceived  that  some  natural  drops  were  finding  their 
way  down  her  tear-passage,  leading  her  to  a  frequent  use 
of  the  handkerchief.  By  this  means  she  interrupted  me, 
I  should  say,  six  or  eight  times,  during  the  reading,  and 
as  soon  as  I  had  finished  she  rose  and  left  the  room. 

I  remained,  and  wrote  a  large  part  of  the  accompany 
ing  reflections,  and,  near  midnight,  on  repairing  to  my 
room,  I  found  that  Mrs.  North  was  asleep.  She  waked 
me  in  the  morning  by  asking  me  if  I  was  asleep.  I  told 
her  that  I  would  gladly  listen  to  what  she  had  to  say. 

She  said,  "  Will  you  not  please,  my  dear,  stop  the  , 

and   the ,"  (naming   two   newspapers,)   "  and   take 

others  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  I,  "  what  is  the  matter  with  them  ?  " 
She  began  to  weep  again.    In  a  few  moments  she  said, 
"  I  would  give  the  world  if  I  could  have  a  conversation 
with  that  Southern  lady." 

"  I  fear,"  said  I,  "  that  it  would  have  a  deleterious  effect 
on  your  attachment  to  the  principles  of  liberty." 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  25 

"  Liberty  !  "  said  she.  "  Oh,  how  foolish  I  have  been ! 
I  see  now  that  there  is  another  side  to  that  question." 

"  I  hope,  my  dear,"  said  I,  "  that  you  will  say  and  do 
nothing  to  occasion  any  reproach.  Certainly,  there  are 
two  sides  to  every  question.  If  you  manifest  any  sur 
prise  at  finding  that  there  is  another  side  to  the  Liberty 
question,  I  fear  that  some  will  quote  to  you  the  fable  of 
the  mouse  who  was  born  in  a  meal-chest." 

"  I  never  heard  of  it,"  said  she. 

"  Why,"  said  I,  "  the  mouse  one  day  stole  up  to  the 
edge  of  the  chest,  when  the  cover  had  been  left  open, 
and,  looking  round  on  the  barn-chamber,  she  said,  '  Dear 
me,  I  had  no  idea  that  the  world  was  half  so  large.' " 

"  The  cover  has  been  down  and  the  meal  has  been  in 
my  eyes  long  enough,"  said  she.  "  I  have  been  so  much 
accustomed  for  a  long  time  to  read  in  our  papers  about 
'enormous  wrong,'  'stupendous  injustice,'  'the  slave- 
breeders,'  4  sum  of  all  villanies,'  that,  unconsciously,  I 
have  come  to  think  of  the  South,  indiscriminately,  as 
though  they  were  Robin  Hood's  men,  or " 

"  O  my  dear,"  said  I,  "  you  must  have  known  that 
there  are  many  good  people  at  the  South,  notwithstand 
ing  slavery." 

"  How  can  there  be  one  good  man  or  woman  there," 
said  she,  "  if  all  that  those  newspapers  say  of  slave-hold 
ing  be  true  ?  Husband,  depend  upon  it  we  have  been 
believing  a  great  lie.  Just  think  of  that  letter.  What  a 
tale  many  of  those  words  reveal.  .When  the  infants  of 
our  former  servants  die,  do  our  ladies  write  inch  letters 
about  them  ?  I  should  judge  that  owning  a  fellow-crea 
ture  softens  and  refines  the  heart,  if  this  letter  is  any  sign, 
instead  of  making  them  all  barbarians.  All  the  newspa 
pers  and  novels  in  the  world  cannot  do  away  the  impres- 


26  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

sions  which  that  letter  has  made  on  my  mind.  I  tell  you, 
husband,  having  slaves  is  not  the  unmitigated  curse  to 
owners  nor  to  slaves  that  we  have  been  taught  to  be 
lieve." 

"  Perhaps,"  said  I,  interrupting  her,  "  you  would  like 
to  live  at  the  South,  and  own  a  few." 

"  I  could  not  be  hired  by  wealth,"  said  she,  "  to  have 
them  for  help,  even  here.  I  never  did  like  them  ;  and 
when  I  think  that  there  are  good  men  and  women  who 
do,  and  who  are  as  kind  to  the  poor  creatures  as  this  dear 
lady,  I  think  that  we  should  give  thanks  to  God." 

"Oh,  the  Southern  people  are  not  all  like  this  good 
lady,  by  any  means,"  said  I. 

"<  Perad venture,'"  said  she,  "'there  be  fifty  righteous.' 
There  must  be  tens  of  thousands.  People  like  this  lady 
are  very  apt  to  make  good  the  saying  of  the  blackberry 
pickers  when  they  see  a  blackberry,  '  Where  there's  one 
there's  more.'  The  letter  reads  as  though  it  were  an 
every-day  thing,  a  matter  of  course,  for  this  lady  to  be 
kind  and  loving  to  the  blacks  ;  and  for  my  part  I  bless 
any  one  who  has  anything  to  do  for  her  or  for  those  like  her. 
Our  papers  never  tell  us  such  stories  as  this  letter  con 
tains.  No,  they  do  not  love  to  hear  them,  I  fear ;  but  if 
a  slave  is  beaten  or  ill-treated,  then  the  chimes  begin, 
*  enormous  wrong,'  '  stupendous  injustice,'  '  sum  of  all  vil- 
lanies.'  " 

"  Why,  my  dear,"  said  I,  "  you  are  getting  to  be  pro- 
slavery  very  fast." 

"  Never,"  said  she,  "  if  you  mean  by  that,  as  I  suppose 
you  do,  approving  all  that  is  involved  in  slavery  and  all 
that  is  committed  under  the  system." 

"  But,"  said  I,  "  your  present  feeling  toward  this 
Southern  lady  may  insensibly  lead  you  to  believe  that  it 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  27 

is  right  to   own   a  fellow-creature.     Does   not   Cowper 
say, — 

" '  I  would  not  have  a  slave  to  till  my  ground, 
To  carry  me,  to  fan  me  while  I  sleep  x  - 

And  startle  when  I  wake,  for  all  the  wealth 
That  sinews  bought  and  sold  have  ever  earned?  * "     _ 

"  How  Kate  must  '  startle '  and  go  into  convulsions 
with  terror  every  time  this  mistress  wakes  ! "  she  re 
plied.  "  If  Cowper  had  written  in  Alabama,  instead  of 
describing  a  state  of  slavery  such  as  existed  in  the  Brit 
ish  possessions,  and  not,  as  in  the  South,  mixed  up  with 
his  every-day  life ;  if  the  first  face  with  which  he  had 
become  familiar  as  a  babe  had  been  a  black  face,  the 
face  of  his  mother's  '  slave '  loving  him,  and  nursing  him, 
and  he,  in  turn,  had  tended  his  old  '  Mammy '  in  her  de 
crepitude,  his  imagination  would  have  contained  some  other 
pictures  than  those  in  the  lines  which  you  quote.  Had  there 
been  a  Mrs.  Cowper,  I  fancy  she  would  have  been  like 
this  lady  y  and  perhaps  we  should  have  seen  Mr.  Cowper 
acting  the  kind  part  of  this  lady's  husband  toward  a 
slave-mother  and  her  babe,  his  '  property,'  so  called.  I 
lay  awake  here,  last  night,  while  you  were  writing,  and 
thought  it  all  over.  What  were  you  writing  about  so 
long  ?  I  wished  that  I  had  a  pencil  and  paper  near 
me.  Those  English  and  French  people  who  got  rid  of 
slavery  as  one  gets  rid  of  a  bunion,  know  nothing  about 
slavery  mingled  with  our  very  life-blood.  How  self- 
righteous  they  are  !  Our  people,  too,  are  perpetually 
quoting  what  Thomas  Jefferson  said  about  slavery  in  his 
day.  Pray,  has  there  been  no  progress  ?  Why  are  we 
not  permitted  to  hear  what  Southern  men,  as  good  as 
Jefferson,  now  say  about  modern  slavery  ?  " 

"  My  dear,"  said  I,  "  perhaps  you  are  not  fully  qualified 


28  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

as  yet  to  judge  of  this  great  subject  in  all  its  relations. 
The  greatest  and  wisest  men  are  divided  in  opinion 
about  it." 

"Great  subject!"  said  she,  "please  let  me  interrupt 
you ;  there  is  but  one  side  to  it,  I  should  judge,  from 
reading  our  papers.  What  do  some  of  the  'greatest  and 
wisest  men,'  on  the  other  side,  have  to  say  for  them 
selves  ?  Are  they  all  '  friends  of  oppression,'  '  enemies 
of  freedom,'  'minions  of  the  slave-power,'  'dough-faces'? 
Husband,  I  am  thoroughly  disgusted.  I  have  been  com 
pelled  to  have  uncharitable  feelings  toward  thousands  of 
people  like  this  Southern  lady ;  I  confess  I  have  really 
hated  them,  as  I  hate  men-stealers  and  pirates.  This 
letter  has  convinced  me  of  my  sin.  It  is  like  the  Gospel 
in  its  effect  upon  me." 

"  But,  my  dear,"  said  I,  "  recollect  that  good  people 
may  be  in  great  error,  and  we  read,  '  Thou  shalt  in  any 
wise  rebuke  thy  neighbor,  and  not  suffer  sin  upon  him.' 
Now,  to  hold  a  fellow-being  in  bondage,  —  howj*can  it  be 
otherwise  than  '  stupendous  injustice '  ?  " 

"  I  wonder,"  said  she,  "  if  Kate  feels  that  she  is  in 
'  bondage '  to  this  lady.  I  wonder  if  she  would  not  think 
it  cruel,  if  her  mistress  should  set  her  free." 

"But  it  is  wrong,"  said  I,  "  to  hold  property  in  a  hu 
man  being,  whether  the  bondman  be  in  favor  of  it  or 
not." 

"  '  Property  ! '  "  said  she.  "  I  should  like  to  be  such 
'  property,'  if  I  were  a  black  woman.  If  it  were  wrong 
in  the  abstract,"  said  she,  "it  might  not  be  in  prac 
tice." 

".Oh,"  said  I,  "  what  a  pro-slavery  idea  that  is  !  where 
did  you  learn  it  ?  " 

"  I  learned  it,"  said  she,  "  at  our  corn-husking,  when 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  29 

the  Squire  read  extracts  from  John  Quincy  Adams's 
speech  about  China,  in  which  he  said  that  if  China  would 
not  open  her  trade  to  the  world,  it  would  be  right  to 
make  war  upon  her.  Now  war  is  wrong,  but  circum 
stances  sometimes  make  it  right.  So  with  holding  certain 
men  in  slavery,  under  certain  circumstances.  I  cannot 
believe  that  it  is  right  to  go  and  enslave  whom  we  will ; 
but  the  blacks  being  here,  I  can  see  that  it  may  be  the 
very  best  thing  for  all  concerned  that  they  should  be 
owned.  This  may  be  God's  way  of  having  them  gov 
erned  and  educated." 

I  found  that  I  was  getting  deeper  into  the  subject  than 
I  intended,  and,  besides,  it  was  time  to  rise.  As  I  left  the 
room,  she  said,  "  You  will  change  those  papers,  won't  you  ? 
then  we  will  have  some  more  pleasant  talks  about  this 
subject."  She  called  to  me  from  the  door,  "  Please  don't 
send  back  the  lady's  letter ;  I  wish  to  copy  it."  This  is 
my  reason  for  not  sending  the  letter  with  my  reply  to  it. 
You  will  certainly  give  me  credit  for  candor  in  telling  you 
all  that  my  wife  said.  However,  it  is  so  easily  answered 
that  I  need  not  fear  to  intrust  you  with  it. 
Yours,  for  the  slave, 

A.  FREEMAN  NORTH. 

P.  S.  After  all,  I  concluded  to  retain  this,  and  wait 
till  my  wife  had  made  what  use  she  desired  of  the  letter, 
that  I  might  be  sure  and  return  it  to  you  safely.  In  the 
mean  time,  I  have  changed  the  papers.  How  irresistible 
a  pleading  woman  is,  especially  a  wife.  Her  very  want 
of  logic  makes  her  more  so,  when  we  are  good-natured. 
She  came  upon  me  with  just  such  another  supplication  a 
few  mornings  since.  As  soon  as  she  awoke,  she  said, 
"  Husband,  do  please  have  our  parlor  window-sashes  let 


30  THE   SABLE   CLOUD. 

down  from  the  top."  "  For  ventilation  ?  "  said  I.  "  Yes," 
said  she,  "  partly  ;  "  but  I  saw  that  she  smiled.  "  What 
has  made  you  think  of  it  so  suddenly  ?  "  said  I.  "  Do 
you  not  want  to  catch  some  more  canaries  ? "  said  she. 
"  I  suspect,"  said  I,  "  that  you  would  like  to  have  ours  es 
cape."  "  Perhaps,"  said  she,  "  that  would  be  a  relief 
to  you  from  your  present  embarrassment."  Then  I  saw 
that  all  this  was  banter.  She  wished  to  teaze  me  a  little. 
The  truth  is,  I  have  two  fine  singing  canaries  and  a 
mocking-bird.  Some  of  my  pro-slavery  friends  delight  to 
pester  me  about  them.  They  say  that  they  mean  to  issue 
a  habeas  corpus,  and  take  them  before  Justice  Bird,  (who, 
you  know,  queerly  enough,  happens  to  be  United  States 
Commissioner,)  and  inquire  if  they  be  not  restrained 
of  their  freedom.  I  tell  them  that  man  has  dominion 
over  all  the  fowls  of  the  air.  But  they  say,  "Then 
might  makes  right !  Is  it  not  a  fine  thing  that  such  a 
lover  of  liberty  and  friend  of  freedom  and  enemy  of  op 
pression  should  keep  those  little  prisoners  for  his  selfish 
gratification.  Come,  be  a  practical  emancipationist  to  the 
extent  of  your  ability ;  set  the  South  an  example  ;  break 
every  yoke."  "  They  are  better  off  with  me,"  said  I ; 
"  the  hawks  or  cats  would  catch  them,  or  they  would  die 
from  exposure."  "  Expediency  !  "  said  one  of  them  ;  "  do 
justice,  if  the  heavens  fall."  "  Fye  at  justitia  !  "  said 
one,  who  pretended  to  take  my  part.  "  Ruat  ccelum,  Let 
them  rush  to  heaven,"  replied  the  other.  "  Parse  ccelum, 
please,  sir,"  said  my  boy  in  the  Academy.  "  Yes,  past  the 
ceiling,"  said  the  lawyer,  pretending  to  misunderstand 
him  ;  "  that's  right,  my  son  ;  "  —  and  more  wretched 
punning  of  the  same  sort.  Hence  Mrs.  North's  pretend 
ed  supplication  about  the  window-sashes.  She  has  been  in 
excellent  spirits  ever  since  I  stopped  the  papers.  She  says 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  31 

that  she  wonders  at  herself  so  calm  and  happy.  I  heard 
her  yesterday  calling  at  the  stairs  to  a  little  lisping  English 
waiting-maid,  who  cannot  pronounce  s:  "Judith,"  said 
she,  "  did  you  not  hear  the  parlor-bell  ?  "  Judith  walked 
up,  and  said,  "  Mitthith  North,  lately  you've  rung  tho 
eathy,  that  motht  of  the  time  I  thought  it  mutht  be  a 
acthident,  and  didn't  come  up  at  futht.  I  thpect  the 
wireth  ith  got  ruthty."  Mrs.  North  said  nothing,  but 
afterward,  in  relating  the  affair  to  me,  she  said  she  truly 
believed  that  it  was  owing  to  my  stopping  the  papers.  For 
she  could  remember  how  often  she  went  to  the  bell-rope 
saying  to  herself  as  she  pulled  it,  "  sum  of  all  villanies  !  " 
then  "  enormous  wrong,"  with  another  pull,  and  then 
"  stupendous  injustice,"  with  another.  Several  times  she 
says  Judith  has  rushed  up  to  the  parlor  with  "  Ma'am, 
whath  the  matter !  the  bell  rung  three  timth  right  off." 
She  thinks  that  her  nervous  system  will  last  longer  with 
out  the  papers  than  with  them.  As  she  told  me  this,  she 
was  shutting  down  the  lid  of  the  piano  for  the  night.  As 
it  fell  into  its  place,  the  strings  set  up  a  beautiful  mur 
mur.  "  Oh,  hear  that !  "  said  she  ;  "  how  solemn  it  is  !  " 
"  I  suppose,"  said  I,  "  you  would  not  have  heard  it,  if  those 
papers  had  been  in  the  house."  I  shall  not  tell  you,  a 
bachelor,  what  she  said  and  did.  I  trust  that  her  views 
on  the  great  subject  of  freedom  will  get  adjusted  by  and 
by  ;  and  I  am  debating  with  myself  what  papers  to  take, 
having  been  obliged,  for  my  own  edification,  to  become  a 
subscriber  to  the  reading-room.  There,  however,  I  meet 
with  a  good  many  pro-slavery  prints,  and  I  am  tempted  to 
look  into  them  ;  after  which  I  frequently  feel  as  though  I 
should  pull  a  bell-rope  three  times.  A.  F.  N. 


32  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 


CHAPTER   III. 

MORBID    NORTHERN    CONSCIENCE. 

"  Heaven  pities  ignorance  : 
She's  still  the  first  that  has  her  pardon  sign'd  ; 
All  sins  else  see  their  faults  ;  she's,  only,  blind." 

MIDDLETON  :  No  Help  like  a  Woman's. 

[Accompanying  note,  from  A.  BETTERDAY  GUMMING  to  A. 
FREEMAN  NORTH. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  NORTH, — 

With  many  thanks  for  your  kindness  and  frankness,  and 
with  my  warmest  congratulations  to  Mrs.  North  for  the  pleas 
ant  effect  which  the  Southern  lady's  letter  has  had  upon  her, 
I  send  you  another  document,  hoping  that  she  will  read  it  to 
you.  It  will  not  be  worth  while  for  me  to  say  anything  about 
this  production.  It  purports  to  be  from  a  young  man  in  one  of 
our  New  England  literary  institutions,  whose  aunt,  with  her 
husband,  was  residing  at  the  South  for  the  health  of  a  niece,  a 
sister  to  this  young  man  ;  —  they  being  orphans.  The  letter 
is  so  entirely  in  the  same  key  with  your  feelings  that  you  can 
not  fail  to  be  interested.  Knowing  that  you  love  rare  speci 
mens  in  everything,  I  send  you  this  as  "  the  only  one  of  its 
kind,"  or  as  we  say,  "  sui  generis"  —  A.  B.  C.] 

College, . 

MY  DEAR  AUNT,  — 

I  have  not  heard  from  you  but  once  since  your  arrival 
at  the  South.  It  is  because  sister  is  more  unwell?  or  be- 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  33 

cause  you  are  very  busy  with  your  arrangements  for  the 
winter  ?  or  is  it  because,  as  I  more  than  half  suspect,  you 
are  so  much  overcome  by  your  first  observation  and  ex 
perience  of  slavery,  that  you  have  but  little,  strength  left 

to  write  to  me  from  that  " post  of  observation, 

darker  every  hour  "  ?  Perhaps  you  are  mustering  cour- 
rage  to  tell  me  of  the  sights  which  you  have  seen,  the  little 
while  that  you  have  been  among  the  poor,  enslaved  chil 
dren  of  the  sun  in  our  Southern  house  of  bondage. 
"  Afraid  to  ask,  yet  much  concerned  to  know,"  I  wait  im 
patiently  for  a  letter  from  you.  I  expect  to  make  great 
use  of  its  details  among  my  fellow-students,  many  of 
whom,  I  mourn  to  say,  have  their  hearts  case-hardened 
against  the  story  of  oppression.  They  will  show  an  inter 
est  in  everybody  and  everything  sooner  than  in  the  slave 
and  his  wrongs.  They  are  not  only  callous  on  that  sub 
ject,  but  they  laugh  at  your  zeal  and  call  it  hard  names. 

No  one  can  tell  what  I  suffer  in  the  cause  of  free 
dom,  through  my  well-meant  endeavors  to  interest  and 
instruct  others  on  the  subject  which  absorbs  my  thoughts. 
I  know  that  I  shall  have  your  sympathy ;  and  when  I 
come  to  hear  from  you  what  your  own  eyes  have  seen, 
ere  this,  in  slavery,  I  shall  esteem  all  my  sufferings  in 
the  cause  of  the  slave  as  light  as  air. 

I  employ  the  intervals  of  study  in  walking  among  the 
beautiful  scenery  of  the  village  and  its  environs,  if  haply 
I  may  meet  with  some  to  whom  I  may  open  my  mind  on 
this  great  theme.  The  last  time  that  I  went  out  for  this 
purpose,  I  met  with  a  sad  sight.  A  horse  was  running 
away  with  a  buggy,  while  between  the  body  of  the  car 
riage  and  the  \uheel  I  saw  depending  a  foot,  which  I  at 
once  inferred  was  that  of  a  lady.  The  horse  rushed  by, 
and  sure  enough,  a  young  lady  had  fallen  on  the  floor  of  the 


34  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

buggy,  holding  the  reins,  evidently  entangled  and  embar 
rassed  in  her  posture,  uttering  the  most  heart-rending 
cries  and  shrieks,  with  intermingled  calls  to  the  horse  to 
stop. 

I  could  not  help  looking  at  the  horse,  as  he  passed, 
with  feelings  of  strong  displeasure.  To  think  that  any 
thing  having  an  ear  to  hear  and  a  sensibility  to  feel 
should  be  so  heedless  of  the  cries  of  distress,  roused  up 
my  soul  to  indignation.  As  I  reflected,  however,  it  oc 
curred  to  me  that  no  doubt  this  horse  had  been  subjected 
to  unkind  treatment  from  his  youth  up.  I  began  to 
blame  his  owners.  Had  the  law  of  kindness  been  ob 
served  in  the  early  management  of  this  horse,  doubtless 
he  would  have  regarded  the  first  appeal  of  this  young 
lady  to  him.  May  we  not  hope,  dear  Aunt,  that  a  new 
era  is  dawning  upon  us  with  regard  to  the  universal 
triumph  of  love  and  kindness  over  oppression  of  every 
kind,  and  that  the  brute  creation  will  partake  of  its  be 
nign  influences  ?  The  tone  and  manner  in  which  horses 
are  spoken  to  often  sends  a  chill  to  my  heart. 

This  reminds  me,  if  you  will  excuse  longer  delay  in 
my  narrative,  of  some  unfavorable  impressions  which  I 
received  lately  on  my  way  to  Boston,  with  regard  to  the 
imperious  manner  in  which  a  traveller  is  assailed  by  ad 
vertisements  on  the  fences,  as  you  pass  through  the  en 
virons  of  the  city.  Every  few  miles,  as  the  cars  passed 
along,  I  saw,  printed  on  the  rough  boards  of  a  fence  : 
"  Visit "  so  and  so ;  "  Use  "  so  and  so  ;  "  Try  "  so  and  so. 
I  would  not  be  willing  to  say  how  often  my  attention  was 
caught  by  those  mandatory  advertisements.  At  last  I 
became  conscious  of  some  feeling  of  resistance.  Whether 
it  was  that  I  began  to  breathe  the  air  of  Bunker  Hill,  and 
the  atmosphere  which  nourishes  our  most  eminent  friends 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  35 

of  freedom,  so  many  of  whom,  you  know,  live  in  Boston 
and  vicinity,  I  cannot  tell ;  but  I  found  myself  saying, 
with  quite  enough  resentment  and  emphasis,  "  I  will  not 
*  use '  so  and  so ;  I  will  not  '  try '  so  and  so ;  especially,  I 
will  not  '  visit '  so  and  so,  —  First,  It  will  not  be  conven 
ient.  Secondly,  I  have  no  occasion  to  do  so.  Thirdly,  I 
do  not  know  the  way ;  but,  Finally,  I  do  not  like  to  be 
addressed  in  this  manner,  as  an  overseer  of  a  Southern 
plantation  addresses  a  slave.  I  am  not  a  slave.  I  am  a 
Massachusetts  freeman."  This  way  of  speaking  to  peo 
ple,  dear  Aunty,  must  be  discountenanced.  It  will,  by 
and  by,  beget  an  aptitude  for  servile  obedience ;  the  eye 
and  ear  becoming  accustomed  to  the  forms  of  domination, 
we  shall  have  yokes  and  chains  upon  us  before  we  are 
aware.  Some  one  says,  "  Let  me  write  the  songs  for  a 
nation,  and  I  care  not  who  makes  her  laws."  So  say  I, 
Let  me  write  imperative  advertisements  on  fences  and 
buildings,  and  all  resistance  to  Southern  encroachments 
and  usurpation  will  soon  be  in  vain. 

But  to  resume  my  narrative.  I  began  to  look  round, 
as  soon  as  my  excitement  about  the  runaway  horse  would 
allow,  for  some  one  to  whom  I  could  open  my  overbur 
dened  mind  on  the  subject  of  freedom.  I  espied  a  man 
with  an  immense  load  of  chairs,  from  a  factory  in  our 
neighborhood,  as  I  supposed,  on  his  way  to  Boston.  Four 
horses  drew  the  load,  which  I  saw  was  very  heavy ;  not  so 
heavy,  I  thought  with  myself,  as  that  which  four  millions 
of  my  fellow-men  are  this  moment  laboring  with,  over  the 
gloomy  hills  of  darkness  in  our  Southern  States.  I  felt 
impelled  to  address  the  driver  on  this  great  theme.  So, 
before  he  had  reached  the  top  of  the  hill,  I  called  out,  — 

"  Driver ! " 

Perhaps  there  was  more  stffldenness  and  zeal  in  my 


36  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

call  than  was  judicious,  but  the  driver  immediately  said 
"  Whoa ! "  to  his  horses,  and  he  ran  hither  and  thither  for 
stones  to  block  the  wheels  to  keep  his  load  from  running 
back,  down  hill. 

I  felt  encouraged,  by  this,  to  think  that  he  was  of  a 
kind  and  pliable  disposition  ;  and  seeing  the  wheels  forti 
fied,  arid  the  horses  at  rest,  I  felt  more  disposed  to  hold 
conversation  with  the  man.  "  Who  knows,"  I  said  to 
myself,  "  but  that  I  may  now  make  one  new  friend  for 
the  slave  ?  " 

"  A  warm  day,"  said  I. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  he,  a  little  impatiently,  I  thought, 
The  sun  was  very  hot,  an  August  morning,  no  air  stir 
ring,  well  suited  to  make  one  think  of  toil  and  woe  under 
our  Southern  skies. 

"  Have  you  ever  been  at  the  South  ?  "  said  I,  wiping 
my  forehead. 

"  No,  sir,"  said  he,  picking  out  a  knot  in  the  snapper 
of  his  whip,  evidently  to  hide  his  embarrassment  while 
waiting  to  know  the  drift  of  my  question.  The  sight  of 
his  whip  kindled  in  my  soul  new  zeal  for  the  poor  slaves, 
knowing  as  I  did  how  many  of  them  were  at  that  moment 
skipping  in  their  tortures  and  striving  to  flee  from  the 
piercing  lash. 

"  Your  toil  in  the  hot  sun  with  your  load,  my  dear  sir," 
said  I,  "  is  well  fitted  to  impress  you  with  the  thought  of 
the  miseries  under  which  four  millions  of  your  fellow-men 
are  every  day  groaning  in  our  Southern  country.  I  make 
no  doubt  that  you  are  grateful  for  the  blessings  of  free 
dom  which  we  enjoy  here  at  the  North.  I  wish  to  ask 
whether  you  are  doing  anything  against  oppression ; 
whether  you  belong  to  any  Association  whose  object 
is" • 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  37 

"  What  on  airth  did  you  stop  me  for,"  said  he,  quite 
impatiently,  and  yet  with  a  lingering  gleam  of  respect, 
and  with  some  hesitancy  at  any  further  rudeness  of 
speech. 

"My  dear  sir,"  said  I,  "four  millions  of  Southern 
slaves  are  this  very  hour  groaning  under  sorrows  which 
no  tongue  " 

"  You  "  —  (he  hesitated  a  moment,  and  surveyed  me 
from  head  to  foot,  and  then  broke  out,)  —  "  putty-headed, 
white-birch-looking,  nateral  —  stoppin'  a  load  right  near 
the  crown  of  a  hill,  no  gully  in  the  road,  such  a  day  as 
this,  and  —  '  Ged  ehp,' "  —  said  he  to  his  horses,  as  the 
stones  under  the  wheels  that  moment  began  to  give  way ; 
and  then  he  drew  his  lash  through  one  hand,  with  a  most 
angry  look.  I  really  thought  that  I  should  have  to  feel 
that  lash.  The  thought  instantly  nerved  me :  —  I'll  bear 
it !  it's  for  the  slave  ;  let  me  remember  them,  I  might 
have  added,  that  are  whipped  as  whipped  with  them  ; 
but  at  that  moment  the  horses  had  reached  the  hill-top, 
and  the  driver  was  by  their  side. 

He  called  back,  as  he  passed  round  the  rear  of  his 
load  to  the  nigh  side  of  his  team.  I  caught  only  a  few 
of  his  last  words ;  —  "  take  your  backbone  for  a  for'ard 
X."  I  snapped  my  thumb  and  finger  at  him,  though 
not  lifting  my  arm  from  my  side.  The  human  spinal 
column,  with  its  vertebrae,  for  an  axle-tree  of  a  wagon  ! 
And  yet,  I  immediately  thought,  the  poor  negro's  back 
is  truly  "  the  for'ard  X  "  of  the  great  wagon  of  our  Amer 
ican  commerce.  But  I  let  him  depart. 

Salutary  impressions,  I  cannot  question,  dear  Aunty, 
were  made  upon  his  mind.  He  had  heard  some  things 
which  would  occupy  his  thoughts  in  his  solitary  trudge  on 
his  way  to  Boston.  That  thought  comforted  me  as  I  was 


38  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

writhing  a  little  on  my  way  home,  under  his  opprobrious 
epithets ;  for  you  know  that  I  was  always  sensitive  when 
addressed  with  reproachful  words. 

I  could  not  help  recalling  and  analyzing  his  scalding 
words  of  contempt.  I  took  a  certain  pleasure  in  doing 
so,  because,  as  I  saw  and  felt  the  power  of  each  in  suc 
cession,  I  remembered  what  awful  abuses  flow  from  the 
tongues  of  Southern  masters  and  mistresses  continually, 
as  they  goad  on  their  slaves  to  their  work,  or  reproach 
them  for  not  bringing  in  the  brick  for  which  they  had 
given  them  no  straw.  So  it  was  comparatively  a  light 
affliction  for  me  to  remember  that  I  had  been  called  by 
such  hard  names.  "  Putty-headed  ! "  said  he.  I  infer, 
dear  Aunty,  that  he  must  have  worked  in  the  painter's  de 
partment,  and  had  been  familiar  with  putty ;  hence  he 
drew  the  epithet,  into  whose  signification  I  did  not  care 
to  inquire.  "  White-birch-looking  !  "  I  suppose  he  re 
ferred  to  the  impression  of  imbecility  which  we  have  in 
seeing  a  perfectly  white  tree  in  the  woods  among  the 
deep  green  of  the  sturdier  trees.  He  may  have  referred 
to  the  effect  of  sedentary  habits  on  my  complexion. 
However,  I  soon  forgot  the  particulars  of  his  insulting 
address,  retaining  only  the  impression  that  I  had  suffered, 
and  that  willingly,  in  the  bleeding  cause  of  freedom. 

It  was  a  great  relief  to  me  that,  just  at  that  moment,  a 
very  fine  dog  approached  me  and  fawned  upon  me,  then 
ran  ahead,  and  seemed  afraid  that  I  should  send  him 
back.  After  a  while  I  tried  to  drive  him  away,  but  he 
insisted  on  following  me,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  I  might 
have  secured  him,  had  I  wished  to  do  so.  I  was  not  a 
little  inclined,  at  one  time,  to  take  him  home  with  me,  and 
to  keep  him  as  a  companion  in  my  walks.  But  he  had  a 
collar  with  his  own  name,  Bruno,  upon  it,  and  the  name 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  39 

of  his  owner.  The  question  of  right  occurred  to  me.  I 
debated  it.  Applying  some  of  the  self-evident  truths 
established  by  our  own  Independence,  I  almost  per 
suaded  myself  that  I  might  rightfully  tal^e  the  dog.  I 
reasoned  thus:  1.  All  dogs  are  born  free  and  equal. 
2.  They  have  an  inalienable  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the 
.pursuit  of  happiness.  3.  All  governments  derive  their 
just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed.  These 
principles,  breathed  in,  from  childhood,  with  the  atmos 
phere  of  our  glorious  "  Fourth,"  I  did  not  hesitate  to  ap 
ply  in  the  case  of  the  dog.  I  do  not  know  what  practical 
conclusion  I  might  have  arrived  at,  but  suddenly  I  lost 
sight  of  Bruno  in  consequence  of  a  new  adventure,  in  the 
process  of  which  he  disappeared. 

A  matronly  looking  lady  came  suddenly  out  of  a  gate, 
with  a  cup  in  one  hand  containing  a  teaspoon,  and  a 
brown  earthen  mug  in  the  other  hand.  She  pushed  the 
gate  open  before  her,  easily;  but  I  saw  that  she  was 
embarrassed  about  shutting  it.  I  stepped  forward  and 
assisted  her. 

"  Some  kind  office  for  the  sick,  I  dare  say,"  said  I. 

"  A  woman  in  that  plastered  house  is  very  sick,"  said 
she;  "I  have  just  fixed  some  marsh-mallow  for  her,  to 
see  if  it  will  ease  her  cough.  Sorry  to  trouble  you,  sir, 
but  my  cup  was  so  full  that  I  could  not  use  my  hands." 

"  I  suppose,"  said  I,  "  madam,  if  you  will  allow  me  to 
detain  you  a  moment," 

"  I  am  afraid  my  drink  in  the  cup  will  get  cold,  sir, 
but "  - 

"  Only  a  moment,  madam,"  said  I ;  (for  I  did  not  feel 
at  liberty  to  walk  with  her ;)  "  only  a  moment ;  I  am  led 
to  think,  by  your  kindness  to  this  poor  woman,  of  the 
millions  of  bond-people  in  our  Southern  country  who 


40  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

never  feel  the  hand  of  love  ministering  to  their  sick  and 
dying" 

"  O  you  ignorant  thing  !  "  said  she,  pouring  the  contents 
of  the  cup  into  the  mug,  and  then  setting  the  cup  on  the 
mug,  all  without  looking  at  me  ;  "  where  were  you  born 
and  bred?  You  must  be  an  abolitionist.  Southern 
ladies  are  the  very  best  of  nurses ;  and  as  to  their  slaves 
when  they  are  sick,  —  why  their  hearts  are  overflowing 
—  why ! "  said  she,  "  I  could  tell  you  tales  that  would 
make  you  cry  like  a  baby  —  the  idea  !  millions  of  slaves 
sick  and  neglected  !  Do  you  belong  to College  ?  " 

"  Yes,  madam,"  said  I. 

"  Sophomore  ?  "  said  she. 

"  Yes,  madam."  But  it  was  a  cutting  question.  She 
had  an  arch  look  as  she  asked  it. 

"Well  sir,"  said  she,  with  a  graceful  air,  in  a  half 
averted  direction,  "  you  have  some  things  to  learn  about 
your  fellow-countrymen  which  are  not  put  down  in  your 
Moral  Philosophies.  Please  do  not  betray  your  ignorance 
on  subjects  about  which  you  are  evidently  in  midnight 
darkness."  She  was  some  ways  from  me,  but  I  heard 
her  continue  :  "  Was  there  ever  anything  like  this  North 
ern  ignorance  and  prejudice  about  the  Southern  people  ! " 

I  had  nothing  to  do  but  resume  my  lonely  walk.  My 
sense  of  desolateness  no  tongue  can  tell.  I  whistled  for 
Bruno,  but  in  vain.  She  called  me  "  an  ignorant  thing," 
said  I.  Ignorant  on  the  subject  of  slavery  !  How  easy 
it  is  to  misjudge  !  Have  I  studied  free-soil  papers  all 
these  years  only  to  be  called  "  an  ignorant  thing  ! "  I 
could  graduate  to-day  from  this  institution,  though  only 
in  my  second  year,  if  the  examination  were  confined  to 
the  subject  of  slavery.  I  have  thoroughly  understood 
the  theory ;  I  have  learned  by  heart  the  codes  of  the 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  41 

iniquitous  system.  I  know  it  root  and  branch,  from  pith 
to  bark.  All  the  lecturers  on  the  subject  have  not  labored 
in  vain,  nor  spent  their  strength  for  nought,  with  me. 
And  now  to  be  called  "  ignorant !  "  Just  as  though  I 
could  not  reason,  that  is,  draw  inferences  from  premises, 
make  deductions  from  facts.  There  is  the  great  fact  of 
slavery  ;  it  is  "  the  sum  of  all  villanies ; "  men  holding 
their  fellow-men  in  bondage  for  the  sake  of  gain ;  the 
heart  naturally  covetous,  oppressive,  and  cruel,  where 
power  is  unlimited.  As  though  the  law  of  kindness 
could,  in  such  circumstances,  possibly  prevail  and  miti 
gate  the  sorrows  of  the  bondman  !  The  direct  influence 
of  slavery  is  to  debase,  to  make  barbarous,  to  petrify;  I 
know  as  well  as  though  I  saw  it  that  the  South  must  be 
full  of  neglected,  perishing  objects,  cast  out  to  perish  in 
their  sicknesses.  You  doubtless  are  acquainted,  dear 
Aunty,  with  the  great  change  in  the  mode  of  reasoning 
introduced  by  Lord  Bacon.  We  reason  now  from  facts  to 
conclusion ;  this  is  called  the  inductive  method,  to  collect 
facts,  then  draw  inferences.  The  facts  which  I  have  col 
lected  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  in  my  reading  and  hear 
ing,  lead  me  to  a  perfect  theory  on  the  subject,  and  my 
confidence  in  that  theory  is  all  which  it  could  be  if,  like 
you,  I  were  now  seeing  it  verified  with  my  own  eyes. 

I  reason  on  this  subject  of  slavery,  just  as  our  philos 
ophers  reason  about  the  moon.  You  have  learned,  dear 
Aunt,  ere  this,  that  there  is  no  water  in  the  moon.  Cer- 
tai'n  things  are  observed  by  our  telescopes,  in  the  moon, 
from  which  we  are  sure  that  there  is  no  water  there. 
Now  there  are  certain  given  facts  in  slavery.  Slavery  is 
Barbarism.  It  consists  in  holding  men  to  compulsory 
servitude.  The  human  heart  is  avaricious  ;  it  gets  all  it 
can,  and  keeps  all  it  gets.  Give  it  complete  power  over 


42  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

a  human  being,  ancf  there  are  no  limits  to  its  cupidity  and 
wrong-doing,  but  the  finite  nature  of  the  thing  itself. 
Hence,  does  it  not  follow  that  there  can  be  no  disinterest 
edness,  no  tender  mercies  in  slavery  ?  Yes,  dear  Aunt, 
as  we  are  perfectly  sure  that  there  can  be  no  water  in 
the  moon,  so  are  we  sure,  by  the  same  unerring  rule  of 
reasoning  according  to  the  inductive  philosophy,  that 
there  is  not  one  drop  of  water  in  slavery  for  the  parched 
lips  of  a  dying  slave.  I  stated  this  to  a  member  of  our 
Junior  Class  who  is  a  wonderful  metaphysician.  He  was 
kind  enough  to  say  that  he  could  discover  no  flaw  in 
the  logic.  Your  letter,  which,  I  trust,  is  now  on  its  way 
to  me,  I  know  will  fully  confirm  my  theory  and  conclu 
sion. 

This  lady  had  probably  been  reading  some  miserable 
cant  about  Southern  humanity,  for  there  are  people 
everywhere  who  take  the  wrong  side  of  every  subject, 
from  sheer  obstinacy.  What  can  disprove  the  laws  of 
human  nature  ?  They  require  that  things  should  be  at 
the  South  as  our  theories  lay  them  down. 

In  our  Institution  I  mourn  to  say  there  is  much  oppo 
sition  to  the  principles  of  freedom.  Not  only  so,  but  the 
students,  many  of  them,  mock  at  us  who  stand  up  against 
oppression. 

You  may  not  be  aware,  dear  Aunty,  that  I  have  a 
habit,  in  walking,  of  keeping  my  hands  firmly  clenched, 
and  my  thumbs  laid  flat  and  pressed  down  over  the 
knuckles  of  my  forefingers.  This,  I  am  aware,  gives 
the  thumbs  a  flattened  look.  One  of  our  principal 
pro-slavery  students  delights  to  laugh  at  me  to  my 
face.  Perhaps  I  am  wrong  in  connecting  everything 
with  this  all-absorbing  theme,  but,  truly,  my  thoughts 
all  run  in  that  direction.  Mother  and  you  were  ac- 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  43 

customed  to  send  me  on  errands  when  I  was  little,  and 
you  placed  your  money  in  ray  right  hand  and  mother 
hers  in  my  left,  because,  on  my  return  to  our  house,  your 
room  was  on  the  right  hand  of  the  entry.  So  I  used  to 
go  along,  holding  your  respective  moneys '  in  my  palms, 
with  my  thumbs  stopping  the  apertures.  And  now  I  am 
persecuted  for  the  fidelity  which  led  me  to  acquire  a 
habit  that  cleaves  to  me  to  this  day.  But  little  did  I 
dream,  dear  Aunty,  when  I  padded  along  like  a  straight 
footed  animal  in  the  water,  instead  of  having  the  free  use 
of  my  open  palms  to  aid  me  in  walking,  that  I  was  ac 
quiring  a  habit  to  be  to  me  an  inlet  of  torture  in  behalf 
of  our  manacled  four  millions,  whose  hands  feel  the  gall 
ing  bonds  of  slavery.  I  take  it  joyfully,  because  it  is  all 
for  the  slave. 

The  day  that  I  came  home  from  my  two  interviews 
and  efforts  just  related,  a  pro-slavery  student,  a  Senior, 
invited  me  into  his  room.  He  is  exceedingly  kind  and 
generous,  though,  I  am  sorry  to  say  it,  a  friend  of  oppres 
sion.  He  gave  me  a  splendid  apple,  the  first  which  I 
had  seen  for  the  season.  He  dusted  my  coat  with  his 
feather-duster,  and  he  even  dusted  my  boots.  He  asked 
me  how  far  I  had  been  walking.  I  told  him  all  which  I 
had  said  and  done,  thinking  that  it  would  profitably  re 
mind  him  of  the  great  subject.  He  roared  with  laugh 
ter.  "  Three  cheers  for  Gustavus  ;  "  k'  isn't  that  rich  ;  " 
—  waving,  all  the  while,  the  feather-duster,  arid  breaking 
out  with  fresh  peals,  as  I  related  one  thing  after  another. 
The  noise  which  he  made  brought  in  several  of  the  stu 
dents  from  neighboring  rooms,  and  he  related  my  stories 
to  them  as  they  stood  with  their  thumbs  and  fingers  hold 
ing  open  their  text-books  at  the  places  where  they  were 
studying.  They  were  a  curious  looking  set,  in  their 


44  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

dressing-gowns,  slippers,  and  smoking-caps ;  and  the 
most  of  them,  unfortunately,  happened  to  be  pro-slavery, 
and  advocates  of  oppression ;  by  which  I  mean,  not  in 
favor  of  my  mode  of  viewing  and  treating  the  subject  of 
slavery.  One  of  them  was  so  amused  and  excited  that 
he  lost  all  self-control.  He  threw  down  his  book,  caught 
me  with  his  two  hands  about  the  waist,  and  tickled  me  so 
that  I  fell  upon  the  floor.  Then  they  raised  a  shout. 
We  have  cool  nights  here,  sometimes,  in  the  warmest 
weather,  and  we  keep,  on  the  foot-boards  of  our  beds,  cot 
ton  comforters,  called  delusions,  because  they  are  so 
downy  and  light.  Two  of  the  students  took  the  Senior's 
comforter  and  laid  it  on  me ;  then  four  of  them  sat  down, 
one  on  each  corner,  to  keep  me  underneath.  I  have  told 
you  that  it  was  a  sultry  August  day.  I  thought  that  I 
should  smother.  I  told  them  so,  as  well  as  my  choked 
voice  would  allow ;  but  one  of  them  said,  in  a  soft,  meek 
tone,  as  I  writhed  in  distress,  "  Hush,  Gustavus,  lie  still ; 
you  are  certainly  laboring  under  a  delusion."  This  was 
all  the  more  painful  from  its  being  so  cruelly  true,  in  a 
literal  sense,  while  I  knew  that  they  had  reference  to  my 
views  with  regard  to  freedom,  in  the  word  "  delusion." 
What  sustained  me  in  those  moments,  dear  Aunty  ?  It 
was  not  that  I  had  myself  stood  by  when  this  trick  was 
played  on  Freshmen,  and  encouraged  it  by  my  actions ; 
no,  a  higher  and  holier  power  than  conscience  of  wrong 
doing  wrought  upon  me  in  those  moments.  Oh,  I  thought, 
the  very  cotton  which  fills  this  comforter  was  cultivated 
by  the  hand  of  a  slave.  And  shall  I  complain  at  being 
nearly  smothered  by  it,  when  I  remember  what  an  incu 
bus  slavery  is  to  the  poor  creature  who  gathered  this 
cotton,  and  what  an  incubus  it  is  to  our  unhappy  land  ? 
I  was  delivered  at  last  from  my  load,  because  my  tor- 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  45 

mentors  were  tired  of  their  sport.  Would  that  there 
were  some  prospect  that  they  who  load  cruel  burdens  on 
the  slave  were  increasingly  tired  of  their  work ! 

They  would  not,  however,  let  me  rise.  So,  thought  I, 
when  we  have  taken  the  burden  of  slavery  off  from  the 
poor  negro,  unholy  prejudice  against  color  keeps  him 
from  rising  to  a  level  with  the  rest  of  the  community.  I 
begged  that  I  might  get  up.  They  told  me  that  my 
morning  exertions  required  longer  rest.  I  told  them  that 
I  must  get  my  Greek.  Whereupon  one  of  them  stood 
over  me,  with  his  arms  raised  in  a  deploring  attitude, 
and  said, — 

"  Sternitur  infelix !  — 
—  Et  dulces  moriens  reminiscitur  Argos." 

This,  dear  Aunty,  is  the  lamentation  of  a  Latin  poet  over 
a  Greek  soldier  lying  prostrate  on  the  battle-field,  far 
from  home  ;  —  "  and  dying  he  remembers  his  sweet 
Greece."  So  they  made  game  of  me  with  the  help  of 
the  Classics,  giving  poignancy  to  their  jokes  by  polishing 
the  tips  with  classical  allusions.  While  I  was  under  the 
"  delusion,"  they  sung  snatches  of  Bruce's  Address  to  his 
army  ;  and  when  they  came  to  the  words 

"  Who  so  base  as  be  a  slave  ?  — 
Let  him  turn  and  flee," 

one  of  them  ran  a  cane  under  the  delusion  and  punched 
me  with  it,  keeping  stroke  to  the  music.  This  was  little 
short  of  profaneness.  They  asked  me  if  the  chair-maker's 
harnesses  were  probably  made  by  free  or  slave  labor, 
alluding,  unfeelingly,  to  a  mistake  which  I  made  in  a 
recitation  one  day,  when  two  of  those  very  students  had 
kept  me  talking  about  slavery  up  to  the  very  moment 
when  the  recitation-bell  rang,  so  that  I  had  not  looked  at 


46  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

my  lesson.  There  are  men  in  my  class,  and  these  were 
some  of  them,  who,  I  am  told,  are  plotting  to  prevent  my 
having  the  first  appointment,  to  which  they  know  that 
my  marks  at  recitation  entitle  me.  But  may  I  never 
be  so  prejudiced  against  those  who  differ  from  me  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  as  to  deny  them  credit  for  things 
which  they  have  fairly  earned.  I  leave  this  to  the 
avowed  enemies  of  human  rights.  For  the  cause  of  the 
slave,  I  must  gain  the  first  appointment. 

I  alluded,  just  now,  to  my  feelings  at  witnessing  tricks 
played  on  the  Freshmen.  Had  the  Sophomores  asked 
my  advice  before  they  played  those  tricks,  I  should 
have  dissuaded  them  ;  but  when  they  played  them,  with 
such  courage  and  enterprise,  I  stood  before  them  with 
admiration.  But  while  I  was  under  that  quilt,  I  found 
that  I  did  not  admire  the  Sophomores  at  all,  any  more 
than  I  did  the  Seniors  who  then  had  me  in  their  power. 

The  enemies  of  freedom,  in  College,  had  a  great 
triumph  the  other  evening.  One  of  them,  in  one  of  the 
Literary  Societies,  read  an  Original  Poem,  the  title  of 
which  was,  "  The  Fly-time  of  Freedom."  He  spoke  of 
"  our  glorious  summer  of  Liberty  "  being  infested  and  pes 
tered  with  noisy,  provoking  things,  which  he  character 
ized  under  the  names  of  dor-bugs,  millers,  and  all  those 
creatures  which  fly  into  the  room  when  the  lamp  is 
lighted  ;  the  swarms  of  black  gnats  which  are  about  your 
head  in  the  woods  ;  horse-flies  which  stick,  and  leave 
blood  running;  and  devil's-darning-needles.  One  brave 
man  here,  a  great  "  friend  of  freedom,"  who,  they  falsely 
say,  loves  to  be  persecuted,  and  longs  for  martyrdom,  and 
interprets  everything  that  way,  he  described  as  a  miller, 
who  seems  to  court  death  in  the  flame.  I  think  he  aimed 
at  me  in  speaking  of  soft,  harmless  bugs  which  creep 
over  your  newspaper  or  book.  Many  faces  were  turned 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  47 

to  me  as  he  repeated  these  lines.  I  am  sorry  to  say  the 
piece  was  much  applauded.  It  has  put  back  the  cause 
of  emancipation  in  College,  I  fear,  a  term. 

The  following  introduction  to  another  piece  was  writ 
ten,  and  was  read,  at  the  same  meeting,  by  a  member  of 
my  own  class.  I  fear  that  there  is  a  sly  hit  intended  by 
the  writer,  which  I  do  not  discern,  at  somebody,  or  some 
thing,  related  to  freedom.  This  I  suspected  from  the 
applause  it  excited  on  the  part  of  those  who  I  know  are 
the  most  deadly  foes  we  have  to  free  institutions.  I  ob 
tained  a  copy  of  this  introduction.  It  will  serve,  at  least, 
to  show  you^pbar  Aunty,  what  a  variety  of  topics  we 
have  to  excite  our  minds  here  in  College.  You  can  ex 
ercise  your  discretion  about  letting  uncle  read  it,  as  it  is 
on  a  subject  of  some  delicacy.  The  writer  says,  — 

"  I  am  collecting  facts  from  our  daily  papers  illustrat 
ing  the  Barbarism  of  Matrimony.  My  list  of  wives 
poisoned,  beaten,  maimed  for  life  by  their  husbands,  and 
of  divorces,  cruel  desertions,  the  effects  on  wives  of  in 
temperance  in  husbands,  is  truly  fearful.  I  make  no 
question  that  there  are  some  happy  marriages.  But  a 
relation  which  affords  such  peculiar  opportunities  for 
cruelty  to  women,  must  sooner  or  later  disappear.  No 
doubt  the  time  will  come  when  marriage  will  be  deemed 
a  relic  of  barbarism,  and  a  bridal  veil  be  exhibited  as  one 
of  the  mock  decorations  of  the  unhappy  victims.  Hu 
man  nature  in  man  is  not  good  enough  to  be  trusted  with 
such  a  responsibility  as  the  happiness  of  woman.  Let 
Bachelors  of  Arts,  on  our  parchments,  suggest  to  us  our 
duty  to  aid,  through  our  example,  as  well  as  by  words, 
in  breaking  this  dreadful  yoke,  bidding  those  innocent 
young  women  who  are  now,  perhaps,  fearfully  looking  at 
us  as  their  future  oppressors,  to  be  forever  free.  In  the 


48  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

language  of  young   Hamlet :   '  I  say,  we  will   have  no 


Just  before  dark  one  evening,  I  was  sitting  in  my  room, 
'  meditating  on  the  great  theme  which  absorbs  my  thoughts. 
My  eye  was  caught  by  the  bright  bolt  of  my  door-lock, 
the  part  of  the  bolt  between  the  lock  and  the  catch  show 
ing,  beyond  question,  that  the  door  was  fastened.  Some 
one  on  the  outside  had  turned  a  key  upon  me. 

I  had  the  self-possession  to  be  quiet,  for  my  mind 
had  been  calmed  by  reflecting,  in  that  twilight  hour, 
that  now  one  more  day  of  toil  •  for  the  poor  slaves  was 
over. 

But  as  I  looked  at  the  bolt,  my  attention  was  diverted 
by  something  near  the  top  of  the  door,  moving  with  a 
strange  motion.  It  was  black ;  it  opened  and  shut.  I 
drew  toward  it.  I  found  that  it  was  the  leg  of  a  turkey, 
the  largest  that  I  ever  saw.  It  was  held  or  fastened  in 
the  ventilator  over  the  door,  while  some  one  on  the  out 
side  was  evidently  pulling  the  tendons  of  the  claw,  mak 
ing  it  open  and  shut. 

There  it  performed  its  tragi-comic  gibes  for  several 
minutes. 

I  resumed  my  seat,  unterrified,  of  course,  and  pro 
ceeded  to  turn  the  spectre  to  good  account.  I  addressed 
it,  in  a  moderate  tone  ;  though  I  think  that  I  used  some 
gesticulation.  Said  I :  Personation  of  the  Slave-power  ! 
predatory,  grasping,  black !  thinkest  thou  a  panting  fugi 
tive  lies  hid  under  my  "  delusion  ?  "  or  wouldst  thou 
seize  a  freeman  ?  The  ^Egis  of  Massachusetts  is  over 
me.  Gape  !  Yawn  !  Thou  art  powerless  ;  but  thy  im 
pudence  is  sublime.  —  Ten  or  fifteen  voices  then  sol 
emnly  chanted  these  words :  — 


THE  SABLE   CLOUD.  49 

"  Emblem  of  Slavery 
Clutching  the  Free ! 
We've  digested  the  turkey 
That  gobbled  on  thee. 
Sure  as  THANKSGIVING  hastened, 
Cock-turkey !  thy  hour, 
Thanksgivings  shall  blazon 
Thy  downfall,  Slave-power ! 

"  The  Slave-power  has  talons, 
Like  Nebuchadnezzar; 
Slaves  are  the  Lord's  flagons 
Our  modern  Belshazzar 
From  the  Temple  of  Nature 
Has  stolen  away. 

'  Mean ! '  '  Mean ! '  be  writ  o'er  him  ! 
Wrath !  canst  thou  de  " 

Here  screams  of  laughter,  and  a  scampering  in  the  en 
try,  and  the  turkey's  leg  tumbling  into  my  room,  ended 
the  trick  and  their  cantillation.  I  was  wishing  to  hear,  in 
the  next  stanza,  the  idea  that  as  the  tendons  of  the  claw 
were  worked  by  a  foreign  power,  so  slavery  at  the  South 
owes  its  activity  to  Northern  influence.  Perhaps  it  is 
due  to  myself  to  say  that  the  word  scampering,  a  few 
lines  above,  has  no  revengeful  reference,  in  its  first  sylla 
ble,  to  the  author  of  the  trick.  The  cause  of  humanity, 
I  find,  has  a  tendency  to  make  one  cautious  and  charita 
ble  in  his  use  of  words. 

They  have  anti-slavery  meetings  in  the  village,  now 
and  then,  which  I  attend.  All  the  talent  of  the  place, 
and  the  truly  good,  are  there.  One  evening,  when  the 
excitement  rose  high,  a  tall,  awkward  young  man  mount 
ed  the  stage,  and  said  that  he  wanted  to  offer  one  resolu 
tion  as  a  cap-sheaf.  You  will  infer,  dear  Aunty,  that  he 
was  an  agriculturist.  He  lifted  his*  paper  high  up  in 
one  hand,  while  his  other  hand  was  extended  in  the  other 
direction,  and  so  was  his  foot  under  that  hand.  He 
3 


50  THE  SABLE   CLOUD. 

looked  like  Bootes,  on  the  map  of  the  heavens,  which  we 
used  to  take  with  us,  you  know,  in  studying  the  comet. 
"  Read  it !  "  "  Read  it !  "  said  the  meeting.  "  I  will," 
said  he,  flinging  himself  almost  round  once,  in  his  excite 
ment,  reminding  me  of  a  war-dance,  and  then  taking  his 
sublime  attitude  again ;  when  he  read,  — 

"  Resolved,  Mr.  Cheerman,  fact  is,  that  Abolition  is 
everything,  and  nuthin'  else  is  nuthin'." 

Some  of  the  younger  portion  of  the  audience  wished 
to  raise  a  laugh,  but  the  reddening,  angry  faces  of  the 
prominent  friends  of  the  slave  were  turned  upon  them 
instantly,  and  overawed  them. 

All  were  silent  for  a  moment,  when  the  Chairman  rose 
to  speak.  He  was  a  short  man,  with  reddish  hair,  and 
his  teeth  were  almost  constantly  visible,  his  lips  not 
seeming  to  be  an  adequate  covering  for  them.  He  had, 
moreover,  a  habit  of  snuffing  up  with  his  nose,  —  in  do 
ing  which  his  upper  lip,  what  there  was  of  it,  played  its 
part,  and  made  him  show  his  teeth  by  frequent  spasms. 
Being  a  little  bow-legged,  he  made  an  awkward  effort  in 
coming  to  the  front  of  the  stage ;  but  we  all  love  him, 
because  he  is  such  a  vigorous  friend  of  freedom,  looking 
as  though  he  would  willingly  be  executioner  of  all  the 
oppressors  in  the  land.  He  said  that  he  "  utterly  con 
curred  "  with  the  mover  in  the  spirit  of  his  resolution  ;  it 
was  not,  to  be  sure,  in  the  usual  form  of  resolutions,  but 
that  could  easily  be  fixed ;  and  he  would  suggest  that  it 
be  referred  to  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  Freedom 
League.  "  I  agree  to  that,"  said  the  pro-slavery  Senior 
who  gave  me  that  entertainment  in  his  room,  (but  who, 
by  the  way,  being  a  friend  of  oppression,  had  no  right  to 
speak  in  a  meeting  in  behalf  of  freedom  ;)  "  I  agree  to 
that,"  said  he,  "Mr.  Chairman,  and  I  move  that  the 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  51 

School-master  be  added  to  the  Committee."  What  a 
cruel  laugh  went  through  the  meeting !  while  the  most 
distinguished  friends  of  the  slave  had  hard  work  to  con 
trol  their  faces. 

I  could  not  help  going  to  the  mover  of  the  resolution 
after  the  meeting ;  and,  laying  two  fingers  of  my  right 
hand  on  his  arm,  I  said,  "  Don't  be  put  down ;  he  tried 
to  reproach  you  for  not  being  college-bred ;  he  had  better 
get  the  slaves  well  educated  before  he  laughs  at  a  Massa 
chusetts  freeman  for  not  being  a  scholar."  —  He  tossed  his 
black  fur-skin  cap  half-way  to  his  head,  and  he  wheeled 
round  as  he  caught  it,  saying,  "  Don't  care,  liberty's 
better 'n  larnin',  'nuff  sight." — "  Both  are  good,"  said  I, 
"  my  friend,  and  we  must  give  them  both  to  the  slave." 
—  "  Give  'em  the  larnin'  after  y'u've  sot  'em  free  ! "  said 
he  ;  "  I'll  fight  for  'em  ;  don't  want  to  hear  nuthin'  'bout 
nuthin'  else  but  liberty  to  them  that's  bound."  He 
stooped  and  pulled  a  long  whip  and  a  tin  pail  from  under 
the  seat  of  the  pew  where  he  had  been  sitting,  making 
considerable  noise,  so  that  the  people,  as  they  passed  out, 
turned,  and  the  sight  of  him  and  his  accoutrements  made 
great  sport  for  some  whose  opinions  and  feelings  were  the 
least  to  be  regarded.  I  saw  in  him,  dear  Aunty,  a  fair 
specimen  of  native,  inbred  love  of  liberty  and  hatred  of 
oppression,  unsophisticated,  to  be  relied  on  in  our  great 
contest  with  the  slave-power.  I  have  been  told,  since 
the  meeting,  that  his  Christian  name  is  Isaiah. 

The  meeting  that  evening  appointed  me  a  delegate  to 
an  Anti-slavery  Convention  which  is  to  be  held  before 
long.  I  am  expected  to  represent  the  College  on  the 
great  arena  of  freedom.  They  have  done  me  too  much 
honor.  Since  my  appointment,  the  students  have  sent 
me,  anonymously,  through  the  post-office,  resolutions 


52  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

to  be  presented  by  me  at  the  Convention.  I  have  copied 
them  into  a  book  as  they  came  in,  and  I  will  transcribe 
them  for  you  and  send  them  herewith.  The  spirit  of 
liberty  is,  on  the  whole,  certainly  rising  among  the  stu 
dents.  As  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the 
Church,  I  cannot  but  hope  that  my  trials  in  the  cause 
of  freedom  have  wrought  good  in  the  Institution.  Some 
who  send  in  these  resolutions  privately,  are,  no  doubt, 
secret  friends,  needing  a  little  more  courage  to  face  the 
pro-slavery  feeling  and  sentiment  which  are  all  about 
them.  Some  one  who  read  these  resolutions  suggested 
the  idea  of  their  being  a  burlesque.  I  repudiated  the 
idea  at  once.  They  will  commend  themselves  to  you, 
dear  Aunty,  I  am  sure,  as  honest  and  truthful. 

The  President  called  me  to  his  room  yesterday,  and 
asked  me  about  the  treatment  which  I  received  from  those 
Seniors.  While  I  was  telling  him  of  it,  I  noticed  that 
he  kept  his  handkerchief  close  to  his  face  almost  all  the 
time.  I  thought  at  first  that  his  nose  bled,  or  that  he  had 
a  toothache;  but  I  afterward  believed  that  he  was  weep 
ing  at  the  story  of  my  wrongs.  A  Southerner,  in  the 
Junior  Class,  said  he  had  no  doubt  that  the  President 
was  laughing  heartily  all  the  time.  None  but  a  minion 
of  the  slave-power  could  have  suggested  this  idea.  The 
President  felt  so  much  that  he  merely  told  me  to  return 
to  my  room. 

But  I  perceive,  by  the  students  with  letters  and  papers 
in  their  hands,  that  the  mail  is  in.  I  will  add  a  postscript, 
if  I  find  a  letter  from  you  ;  and  I  will  send  on  the  resolu 
tions  at  once.  Write  soon,  dear  Aunty,  to  your  loving 
nephew,  and  to 

Yours  for  the  slave, 

GUSTAVUS. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  53 


CHAPTER  IV. 

RESOLUTIONS    FOR   A    CONVENTION. 

"Nay,  and  thou'lt  mouth, 
I'll  rant  as  well  as  thou."  —  HAMLET. 

I. 

T)ESOLVED,  That  the  continued  practice  of  wild 
JL\J  geese  to  visit  the  South  for  the  winter,  flying  over 
free  soil  —  Concord,  Lexington,  Bunker  Hill,  Faneuil 
Hall,  —  on  their  way  to  the  land  of  despotism,  cannot  be 
too  loudly  deplored  by  all  the  friends  of  freedom  in  the 
North  ;  and  that  the  laws  of  nature  are  evidently  imper 
fect  in  not  yielding  to  the  known  anti-slavery  sentiments 
of  this  great  Northern  people  so  far  as  to  make  the  in 
stincts  of  said  geese  conform  to  our  most  sacred  antipa 
thies  and  detestations. 

II. 

Resolved,  That  the  abolitionists  of  Maine,  and  of  the 
British  Provinces,  resident  near  the  summer  haunts  of 
said  geese,  be  requested  to  consider  whether  measures 
may  not  be  adopted  whereby  anti-slavery  tracts,  and 
card-pictures  illustrating  the  atrocious  cruelties  of  sla 
very,  and  appeals  to  the  consciences  of  the  South,  or  at 
least  instructions  to  the  colored  people  as  to  their  right 
and  duty  to  assert  their  liberty,  may  not  be  fastened  to 


54  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

these  birds  of  passage,  to  make  them  apostles  of  liber 
ty  ;  so  that  while  they  continue  to  disregard  the  bleeding 
cause  of  humanity,  their  very  cackle  may  be  converted 
into  lays  of  freedom. 

III. 

Whereas  we  read  in  the  Revelation  a  description  of  the 
wall  of  heaven  as  having  "  on  the  South  three  gates,"  a 
number  equal  to  that  assigned  to  the  North, 

Resolved,  That  this  description  being  in  total  disregard 
of  the  great  modern  anti-slavery  movement,  the  book 
which  contains  it  cannot  have  been  divinely  inspired  ;  and 
that  a  true  anti-slavery  Bible  would  have  represented 
those  pro-slavery  gates  as  shut,  with  the  inscription  over 
them  :  Enter  from  the  North. 

IV. 

Resolved,  That  the  great  abolitionist  who  represents 
himself  in  his  speeches  as  baptizing  his  dogs,  in  just  ridi 
cule  of  the  baptism  of  chattel  slaves,  is  worthy,  with  his 
dogs,  of  a  place  in  the  heavens  among  the  constellations ; 
and  that  anti-slavery  astronomers  be  requested  to  make  a 
Southern  constellation  for  them  somewhere  near  the  head 
of  The  Serpent,  as  rivals  to  "  Canes  Venatici"  which  pro- 
slavery  astronomers  no  doubt  designed,  in  blasphemous 
profanation  of  the  heavens,  to  represent  their  bloodhounds 
hunting  fugitive  slaves,  placing  it  in  disgusting  proximity 
to  our  own  Northern  Ursa  Major.  And  the  friends  of 
the  slave  are  hereby  invited  to  make  that  new  constella 
tion  their  cynosure,  vowing  by  it,  and  anti-slavery  lovers 
arranging  their  matrimonial  engagements,  if  possible, 
so  as  to  plight  their  troth  only  when  it  is  in  the  as 
cendant. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  55 


V. 

Resolved,  That  we  shall  hail  it  as  a  sign  of  progress 
and  an  omen  for  good,  when  anti-slavery  women,  with  the 
sensibility  which  belongs  to  their  sex,  shall  become  so 
interpenetrated  with  the  sentiments  of  freedom,  that  they 
can  distinguish  by  the  sense  of  taste  the  oyster  grown  in 
James  River,  Richmond,  Virginia,  and  handled  by  the 
toil-worn  slave,  from  that  which  grew  on  free  soil. 

VI. 

Resolved,  That  our  noble  anti-slavery  poets  be  requested 
to  compose  sonnets  addressed  to  the  whippoorwill,  appeal 
ing  to  that  sorrowful-tuned  bird  by  our  associations  with 
his  name,  and  by  his  own  historic  relationship  to  the  vic 
tims  of  oppression,  to  desert  the  South  and  to  frequent 
our  woods  and  pastures  in  greater  numbers,  that  the  sen 
sibilities  of  our  people  may  be  continually  touched  by  his 
notes  and  his  name,  so  suggestive  of  the  monstrous  lash 
which  rules  over  one  half  of  this  great  nation.  And  the 
anti-slavery  members  of  the  Legislature  are  hereby  re 
quested  to  seek  legislative  enactments  whereby  the  whip 
poorwill  may  be  further  domiciliated  at  the  North,  and 
be  provided  with  protection  during  the  winter  season. 

VII. 

Resolved,  That  bobolinks,  blue  jays,  orioles,  martins, 
and  swallows,  who  visit  the  rice-fields  of  the  South,  and 
live  upon  the  unrequited  toil  of  four  millions  of  our  fel 
low-men,  should  not,  upon  their  return,  be  viewed  with 
favor  by  the  friends  of  equal  rights  at  the  North,  but 
should  be  destroyed  by  sportsmen  as  a  sacrifice  to  out 
raged  humanity.  And  no  true  anti-slavery  taxidermist 


56  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

will,  in  our  judgment,  be  found  willing  to  stuff  the  skin 
of  one  of  those  mean  and  traitorous  birds  for  any  public 
or  private  ornithological  show-case. 

VIII. 

Resolved,  That  one  subject  of  great  interest,  well  suited 
to  occupy  the  attention  of  Massachusetts  freemen  and 
friends  of  liberty  the  current  year,  is  this :  Whether  the 
great  whips  in  Dock  Square,  Boston,  which  stand  pro 
fessedly  as  signs  before  the  doors  of  whip -makers'  shops, 
but  are  in  the  very  sight  of  Faneuil  Hall,  shall  be  allowed 
to  remain  within  that  sacred  precinct  of  liberty;  and  that 
we  tender  our  thanks  to  those  who  are  investigating  the 
question  whether  the  whips  were  not  originally  placed, 
and  are  not  now  maintained,  there  by  the  slave-power, 
in  mockery  of  our  Northern  hatred  of  oppression. 

IX. 

Resolved,  That,  if  it  be  true  that  the  steel  pen  which 
signed  the  bill  for  the  removal  of  a  Judge  of  Probate  for 
doing  an  accursed  duty  as  U.  S.  Commissioner,  was  taken 
from  the  Council  Chamber  and  is  now  in  the  possession 
of  one  who  has  driven  it  into  the  edge  of  his  chamber- 
door  casement,  and  every  night  hangs  his  watch  upon  it, 
at  the  head  of  his  bed,  with  the  infatuated  notion  that 
thereby,  through  some  "  most  fine  spirit  of  sense,"  the  tick 
of  a  death-watch  will  disturb  the  political  dreams  of  our 
Massachusetts  rulers,  we  hereby  declare  that  this  is  most 
chimerical  and  visionary,  and  that  the  great  party  of 
freedom  in  Massachusetts  need  not  feel  the  slightest  ap 
prehension  that  our  rulers  have  the  least  misgivings  as  to 
the  morality  of  their  conduct  in  the  removal  of  said  offi 
cer,  nor  that  they  fear  political  retribution  for  that  deed ; 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  57 

nor  do  we  believe  that  the  death-watch  will  ever  tick  in 
the  ear  of  freedom  in  Massachusetts. 

X. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  acquiescence  of  many  at  the 
North  in  the  entire  justice  of  a  universal  massacre,  by 
the  slaves,  of  their  masters,  including  women  and  chil 
dren,  we  recognize  a  state  of  preparedness  for  the  pro 
scription  and  banishment  of  all  who  do  not  come  up  to 
the  high  abolition  standard ;  but  that  in  carrying  out  that 
project,  we  ought  first  to  seek  the  reclamation  of  the  vic 
tims,  and  therefore  that  due  inquiry  ought  to  be  made 
concerning  the  most  effective  modes  of  persuasion,  as,  for 
example,  thumb-screws,  racks,  wheels,  scorpions,  water- 
dropping  for  the  head,  bags  of  snakes,  tweezers,  and 
steel-pointed  beds,  it  being  apparent  that  our  agony  for 
the  slave  cannot  be  satisfied  except  by  his  liberation,  or 
by  the  forcible  subjection  to  us  of  all  who  oppose  it. 
And  we  do  hereby  request  all  the  friends  of  freedom  now 
travelling  in  despotic  countries  to  make  inquiry  as  to  the 
most  approved  methods  of  persuading  the  mind  by  ap 
peals  to  it  through  the  sensibilities  of  the  flesh,  and  to  be 
prepared  with  this  information  against  the  time  when  the 
sublime  march  of  abolition  philanthropy  shall  arrive  at 
the  limits  of  forbearance  with  all  the  Northern  advocates 
of  oppression. 

XI. 

Whereas  no  one  who  holds  slaves  can  be  a  Christian  ; 
and  whereas  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  were  slave-hold 
ers,  Abraham  himself  having  owned  more  slaves  than 
any  Southerner  ;  and  whereas  a  synonyme  of  heaven,  in 
the  New  Testament,  is  "  Abraham's  bosom  ; "  and  whereas 
3* 


58  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

no  true  friend  of  freedom  can  consistently  have  Christian 
communion  with  slave-holders, 

Resolved,  That  we  look  with  deep  interest  to  the  intro 
duction  among  us  of  the  principles  of  the  Hindoo  philos 
ophy  and  religion  (including  the  transmigration  of  souls), 
through  tentative  articles  in  our  magazines  ;  by  which  there 
is  opening  to  us  a  way  of  escape  from  that  heaven  one 
exponent  of  which  is,  to  lie  in  the  bosom  of  a  slave 
holder. 

xn. 

And  in  conclusion, 

Be  it  Resolved,  That  Bunker  Hill  was  since  Mount 
Sinai,  that  Faneuil  Hall  is  far  in  advance  of  the  Taber 
nacle  in  the  Wilderness ;  and  that  our  anti-slavery  liter 
ature  is  immeasurably  beyond  epistles  to  Philemon  and 
other  inspired  pro-slavery  tracts. 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  59 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  GOOD  NORTHERN  LADY'S  LETTER  FROM  THE 
SOUTH. 

"  No  haughty  gesture  marks  his  gait, 
No  pompous  tone  his  word  ; 
No  studied  attitude  is  seen, 
No  palling  nonsense  heard  ; 
He'll  suit  his  bearing  to  the  hour, 
Laugh,  listen,  learn,  or  teach, 
With  joyous  freedom  in  his  mirth, 
And  candor  in  his  speech."  —ELIZA  COOK. 

[My  friend,  A.  Freeman  North,  having  read  the  foregoing, 
returned  it  with  a  hasty  note,  in  pencil,  saying,  "Please 
send  me  the  Aunt's  reply,  if  you  have  it,  or  can  procure 
it."  I  accordingly  sent  it,  and  we  have  it  here.] 

MY  DEAR  NEPHEW, — 

Your  letter  came  while  we  had  gone  into  the  country 
for  a  fortnight.  Hattie  is  much  improved,  and  I  trust 
will  soon  be  well.  I  gave  her  your  letter  to  read.  She 
told  me  that  she  could  not  find  it  in  her  heart  to  wonder 
at  you  for  it ;  for  once  she  should  probably  have  written 
very  much  in  the  same  strain. 

It  was  Easter  Monday  afternoon  when  our  steamboat 
reached  the  wharf.  "We  took  an  open  carriage  and  drove 
toward  the  hotel.  As  we  reached  the  centre  of  the  city, 
the  place  seemed  to  be  full  of  colored  people,  who  evi 
dently  had  just  come  out  of  their  meeting-houses.  This 


60  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

was  our  first  view  of  the  blacks.  Our  driver  had  to  stop 
frequently  while  they  were  crossing  the  streets,  and 
we  had  full  opportunity  to  enjoy  the  sight.  Hattie  ex 
claimed,  after  looking  at  them  a  few  moments,  — 

"  Why,  Uncle,  they  are  human  beings  ! " 

"  What  did  you  suppose  they  were  ?  "  said  he. 

"  Uncle,"  said  she,  "  these  cannot  be  slaves.  Where  do 
you  suppose  the  yokes  are  ?  " 

"  Now,  Hattie,"  said  he,  "  you  were  not  so  simple  as 
to  suppose  that  they  wore  yokes,  like  wild  cows  and 
swine." 

"  Why,"  said  she,  "  our  papers  are  always  telling  about 
their  being  '  reduced  to  a  level  with  brutes,'  and  every 
Sabbath  since  I  was  a  child,  it  seems  to  me,  I  have 
heard  the  prayer, '  Break  every  yoke  ! '  Last  Sabbath  our 
minister,  you  remember,  said,  '  Abraham  was  a  slave 
holder,  David  a  murderer,  and  Peter  lied  and  swore.' 
Why,  Uncle,  these  black  people  look  like  gentlemen  and 
ladies  !  If  slave-holders  are  like  murderers  and  thieves, 
these  cannot  be  their  slaves ! " 

"  Ask  that  elderly  gentleman,"  said  your  Uncle.  He 
was  stopping  for  our  carriage  to  pass,  —  a  portly  man, 
with  a  ruffled  shirt,  and  a  rich-looking  cane,  the  end  of 
which  he  kept  on  the  ground,  holding  the  top  of  it  at  some 
distance  from  him. 

"  Please,  sir,  will  you  tell  me  if  these  are  the  slaves  ?  " 
said  Hattie. 

He  looked  round,  while  he  kept  his  arm  and  the  top 
of  his  cane  describing  large  arcs  of  a  circle. 

"  They  are  our  colored  people,  Miss,"  said  he,  ex 
changing  a  smile  with  your  Uncle  and  me. 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  Hattie,  more  earnestly  than  before, 
"  are  they  slaves  ?  " 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  Gl 

He  politely  nodded  assent,  but  was  apparently  inter 
ested  by  something  which  caught  his  eye.  He  then  took 
out  a  snuff-box,  and,  looking  round  about  him  while  open 
ing  it,  said,  — 

"  Some  of  them  dress  too  much,  Miss',  —  too  much, 
altogether." 

"  Kid  gloves  of  all  colors,"  said  Hattie,  soliloquiz 
ing.  "  Red  morocco  Bibles  and  hymn-books.  What  a 
white  cloud  of  a  turban !  Part  of  the  choir,  I  take 
it,  —  those,  with  their  singing-books.  Elegant  spruce 
young  fellow,  isn't  he,  Aunt  ?  with  the  violoncello.  Ven 
erable  old  couple,  there !  over  eighty,  both  of  them. 
Well,"  continued  Hattie,  "  I  will  give  up,  if  these  are 
the  slaves." 

"  Don't  make  up  your  mind  too  suddenly,"  said  your 
Uncle  ;  u  you  will  see  other  things." 

"  Uncle,"  said  she,  "  what  I  have  seen  here  in  fifteen 
minutes  shows  me  that  at  least  one  half  of  that  which  I 
have  learned  at  the  North  about  the  slaves  is  false.  Our 
novels  and  newspapers  are  all  the  time  misleading 
us." 

"  And  yet,"  said  your  Uncle,  "  perhaps  everything  they 
say  may  be  true  by  itself;  it  may  have  happened." 

"  Why,  Aunt,"  said  she,  "  such  a  load  is  gone  from  my 
mind  since  looking  upon  these  colored  people  that  I  feel 
almost  well.  Why,  there's  a  wedding ! "  said  she.  "  Driver, 
do  stop  !  Uncle,  please  let  us  go  in." 

They  left  me,  and  went  into  a  meeting-house,  where  a 
black  bridegroom,  in  a  blue  broadcloth  suit,  white  waist 
coat,  kid  gloves,  patent-leather  shoes,  and  white  hose,  and 
an  ebony  bride,  in  white  muslin  caught  up  with  jessamines, 
and  a  myrtle  wreath  on  her  head,  had  gone  in,  followed 
by  a  train  of  colored  people.  The  white  people,  invited 


62  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

guests,  it  seems,  were  already  assembled.  The  sexton 
told  your  Uncle  that  the  parties  were  servants,  each  to  a 
respectable  family.  This  was  a  new  picture  to  Hattie. 
She  said  that  in  looking  back  to  the  steamboat,  an  hour 
ago,  the  revelations  made  to  her  by  what  she  had  seen 
and  heard,  in  that  short  time,  all  new,  all  surprising  and 
delightful,  afforded  her  some  idea  of  the  sensations  of  a 
soul  after  it  has  been  one  hour  within  the  veil.  We  sat 
in  the  carriage,  and  saw  the  procession  pass  out,  when 
the  choir,  who  had  been  in  the  church  before  the  wed 
ding,  practising  tunes,  resumed  their  singing. 

"Now  the  idea,"  said  Hattie,  after  we  had  listened 
awhile,  "  that  they  can  forget  that  they  are  slaves  long 
enough  to  meet  and  practise  psalm-tunes  ! " 

"  You  evidently  think,"  said  your  Uncle,  "  that  they 
would  not  sing  the  Lord's  songs,  if  this  were  to  them  a 
strange  land." 

"  They  certainly  have  not  hung  their  harps  upon  the 
willows  by  these  rivers  of  Babylon,"  said  Hattie. 

"  Why,  some  of  our  people  at  the  North  are  to-day 
writhing  in  anguish,  because  of  these  slaves,  and  are  im 
precating  God's  vengeance,  and  praying  that  the  slaves 
may  get  their  liberty,  even  by  violence,  while  the  slaves 
themselves  are  practising  psalm-tunes  !  "  — 

"  And  getting  married,"  said  your  Uncle. 

"  Yes,  Sir,"  said  Hattie,  "  and  this  week  our paper 

will  come  to  us  from  New  York  loaded  with  articles  about 
'  bondage  '  and  '  sum  of  all  villanies,'  and  '  poor,  toil-worn 
slaves.'  Toil-worn  !  I  never  saw  such  a  lively  set  of 
people.  Do  see  that  little  mite  of  a  round  black  child, 
in  black  jacket  and  pants  ;  he  looks  like  a  drop  of  ink ; 
Oh,  isn't  he  cunning  !  Little  boy  !  what  is  your  " 

"  Come,  come !  "  said  your  Uncle,  "  you  are  getting  too 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  63 

much  excited ;  you  will  pay  for  all  this  to-morrow  with 
one  of  your  headaches." 

But  a  new  surprise  awaited  us.  The  driver  stopped 
opposite  a  large,  plain-looking  building,  and  told  us  that 
we  had  better  step  in.  On  entering,  w6  involuntarily 
started  back,  for  I  never  saw  a  house  more  densely  filled ; 
and  all  were  blacks.  It  was  a  sable  cloud  ;  but  the  sun 
was  in  it.  The  choir  were  singing  a  select  piece.  The 
principal  soprano,  an  elegant-looking  black  girl,  dressed 
in  perfect  taste,  held  her  book  from  her  in  her  very  small 
hand  covered  with  a  straw-colored  glove.  The  singing 
was  charming.  We  asked  a  white-headed  negro  in  the 
vestibule  what  was  going  on. 

"  Why,  it  is  Easter  Monday,  Missis." 

"  Is  this  an  Episcopal  church  ?  " 

"No;  Baptist." 

"What  are  all  these  people  here  for?"  said  your 
Uncle. 

"  Why,  to  worship,  Sir,  I  hope.     It's  holiday." 

"  Do  they  go  to  church,  holidays  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  he,  with  a  smile  and  bow,  "  some  of  the 
best  of  'em,  p'raps." 

We  returned  to  the  carriage. 

"  Think,"  said  your  uncle,  "  of  two  thousand  people  at 
the  North  spending  a  part  of '  Artillery  Election  Day  '  in 
Boston,  for  example,  in  going  to  church  !  " 

"Well,"  said  Hattie,  "if  I  were  not  to  live  another 
day,  I  would  bless  God  for  having  let  me  live  to  see  these 
things.  I  am  so  glad  to  find  people  happy  who  I  had 
supposed  were  weeping  and  wailing." 

We  admonished  her  that  she  had  not  seen  the  whole 
of  slavery. 

A  very  interesting  coincidence  happened  to  us  the  next 


64  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

day.  We  took  tea  at  Rev.  Mr.  's.  A  splendid 

bride-cake  adorned  the  table.  As  Hattie  was  admiring 
the  ornaments  on  the  cake,  the  lady  of  the  clergyman 
smiled  and  said, — 

"  This  is  from  a  colored  wedding." 

Sure  enough,  that  black  bride  whom  we  saw  the  day 
before  had  sent  her  minister's  wife  this  loaf.  Said 

Miss  ,  "I  was  hurrying  to  get  a  silk  dress  made 

last  week,  but  my  dressmaker  put  me  off,  because  she 
was  working  for  Phillis  B.'s  wedding." 

We  both  gave  a  glance  at  Hattie.  She  sat  gazing  at 

Miss  ,  her  lips  partly  open,  her  eyes  moistened, — 

a  picture  in  which  delight  and  incredulity  were  in  pleas 
ant  strife, 

We  have  been  in  the  interior  a  fortnight.  One  thing 
filled  me  with  astonishment,  soon  after  I  came  here,  namely, 
to  find  widow  ladies  and  their  daughters,  all  through  the 
interior  of  Southern  States,  living  remote  from  other  hab 
itations,  surrounded  by  twenty,  fifty,  or  a  hundred  slaves. 
Hattie  and  I  spent  a  week  with  a  widow  lady,  whose  head 
slave  was  her  overseer.  There  was  not  a  white  man 
within  a  mile  of  the  house.  More  than  twenty  black 
men,  slaves,  were  in  the  negro  quarter.  I  awoke  the 
first  night,  and  said  to  Hattie, — 

"  Do  you  know  that  you  are  '  sleeping  on  a  volcano '  ?  " 
"  What  do  you  mean,  Aunt  ?     You  frighten  me." 
"  Well,  it  will  not  make  an  eruption  to-night,"  said  I. 
"  We  will  examine  into  it  to-morrow." 

At  breakfast  I  asked  the  lady  how  she  dared  to  live  so. 
E  told  her  that  we  at  the  North  generally  fancied  South 
ern  people  sleeping  on  their  arms,  expecting  any  night  to 
be  murdered  by  their  slaves. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  65 

"  It  ought  to  be  so,  ought  it  not  ?  "  said  she,  "  according 
to  your  Northern  theory  of  slavery ;  and  it  may  get  to 
be  so,  if  your  people  persist  in  some  of  their  ways.  My 
only  fear  is  of  some  white  men  who  live  about  two  miles 
off.  I  keep  two  of  my  men-servants  in  the  house  at 
night  as  a  protection  against  white  depredators." 

"  But,"  said  Hattie,  "  there  have  been  insurrections. 
Are  you  not  afraid  that  your  slaves  will  rise  and  assert 
their  liberty  ?  " 

The  lady  smiled  and  was  evidently  hesitating  whether 
to  answer  seriously  or  not,  when  Hattie  continued,  — 

"  Aunt !  now  I  see  what  you  meant  by  our  sleeping  on 
a  volcano." 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  u  we  at  the  North  often  speak  of  you 
Southerners  as  sleeping  on  a  volcano.  Our  idea  is  that 
the  blacks  here  are  prisoners,  stealing  about  in  a  sulky 
mood,  vengeance  brooding  in  their  hearts,  and  that  they 
wait  for  their  time  of  deliverance,  as  prisoners  in  our 
state-prison  watch  their  chance  to  escape." 

"  Well,"  said  she,  "  I  believe  I  am  the  only  slave 
on  the  premises.  I  am  sure  that  no  one  but  myself  is 
watching  for  a  chance  to  escape.  I  would  run  away 
from  these  people  if  I  could.  But  what  shall  I  do  with 
them  ?  I  ani  not  willing  to  sell  them,  for  when  I  have 
hinted  at  leaving,  there  is  such  entreaty  for  me  to  remain, 
and  such  demonstrations  of  affection  and  attachment,  that 
T  give  it  up. 

"  Here,"  said  she,  "are  seven  house-servants,  large  and 
small,  to  do  work  which  at  the  North  a  man  and  two  ca 
pable  girls  would  easily  do.  I  have  to  devise  ways  to  sub 
divide  work  and  give  each  a  share.  My  husband  carried 
it  so  far  that  he  had  one  boy  to  black  boots  and  another 
shoes,  and  these  two  '  bureaus '  were  kept  separate." 


66  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  Oh,"  said  I,  "  what  a  curse  slavery  is  to  you  !  " 

"  As  to  that,"  said  she,  "  it  is  the  negroes  who  are  a 
curse,  not  their  slavery.  So  long  as  they  are  on  the 
same  soil  with  us,  the  subordination  which  slavery  estab 
lishes  makes  it  the  least  of  two  evils.  If  there  is  any 
curse  in  the  case,  it  is  the  blacks  themselves,  not  their 
slavery.  Were  it  not  for  their  enslavement  to  us,  we 
should  hate  them  and  drive  them  away,  like  Indiana 
and  Illinois  and  Oregon  and  Kansas.  Now  we  cherish 
them,  and  their  interests  are  ours, 

"  Two  distinct  races,"  said  she,  "  never  have  been  able 
to  live  together  unless  one  was  subordinate  and  dependent. 
This,  you  know,  all  history  teaches.  Your  fanatics  say  it 
should  not  be  so ;  they  talk  about  liberty,  equality,  and 
fraternity,  and  put  guns  and  pikes  into  the  hands  of  the 
inferior  race,  here,  to  help  them  '  rise  in  the  scale  of  be 
ing,'  as  they  term  it.  What  God  rr  °,ans  to  accomplish  in 
this  matter  of  slavery  I  do  not  see. 

"  Suppose,  merely  for  illustration,"  said  she,  "  that  cot 
ton  should  be  superseded.  Vast  numbers  of  our  slaves 
might  then  be  useless  here.  What  would  become  of 
them  ?  We  should  implore  the  North  to  relieve  us  of 
them,  in  part.  Then  would  rise  up  the  Northern  antipa 
thy  to  the  negro,  stronger,  probably,  in  the  abolitionist 
than  in  the  pro-slavery  man  ;  and  as  we  sought  to  remove 
the  negroes  northward  and  westward,  the  Free  States 
would  invoke  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  Dred  Scott  de 
cision,  and  then  we  should  see,  with  a  witness,  whether  the 
black  man  has  '  any  rights '  on  free  soil  '  which  the '  orig 
inal  settlers  *  are  bound  to  respect.'  Think  of  bleeding 
Kansas,  even,  refusing  to  incorporate  negro-suffrage  in 
her  constitution,  when  left  free  to  follow  the  dictates  of 
common  sense,  and  a  wise  self-interest.  I  sometimes 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  67 

think  that  that  one  thing,  as  a  philosophical  fact,  is  worth 
all  the  trouble  which  Kansas  has  cost.  It  cannot  be 
'unholy  prejudice  against  color.'  It  is  human  nature 
asserting  the  laws  which  God  has  established  in  it. 

"  I  never,"  said  she,  "  find  abolitionists  ''quoting  the 
whole  of  the  verse  which  says  :  '  and  hath  made  of  one 
blood  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.'  " 

"  What,"  said  I,  "  do  they  leave  out  ?  " 

"  *  And  hath  fixed  the  bounds  of  their  habitations,'  are 
some  of  the  next  words,"  said  she. 

But  you  will  tire  of  this.  I  will  resume  my  story.  I 
will  only  say  that  I  told  the  lady  that  some  of  my  gentle 
man  friends  would  call  her  a  strong-minded  woman. 

Your  letter  made  me  think  of  something  which  hap 
pened  to  a  lady,  a  fellow-traveller  of  ours,  a  few  weeks 
ago.  She  came  here  to  visit  a  lady  whose  husband  owns 
one  hundred  and  fifty  slaves.  The  morning  after  she 
reached  the  plantation,  as  she  told  me,  she  was  awaked 
by  the  cracking  of  whips.  She  listened  ;  human  voices, 
raised  above  the  ordinary  pitch,  were  mingling  with  the 
sounds.  She  lay  till  she  could  endure  it  no  longer. 
Coming  down  to  the  piazza,  she  saw  a  white  man  mend 
ing  a  harness  on  a  horse.  "  Those  whips,"  said  she,  in 
quiringly,  —  "  they  have  rather  interfered  with  my  peace. 
Any  of  the  colored  people  been  doing  wrong?"  He 
hesitated,  and  kept  on  fixing  his  harness,  till,  finally,  he 
turned  round,  —  for  he  had  been  standing  with  his  back 
to  her  and,  as  she  supposed,  to  hide  his  chagrin  at  being 
questioned  on  so  trying  a  subject.  "  Truth  is,  Madam," 
said  he,  taking  a  large  piece  of  tobacco  and  a  knife  from 
his  pocket,  and  helping  himself  slowly,  —  "truth  is,  we 
have  so  much  of  this  work  to  do,  we  have  to  begin  early. 


68  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

Sorry  it  disturbed  you ; "  and  he  gathered  up  the  reins 
and  drove  off. 

The  whips  kept  up  their  racket.  "  Here,"  said  she  to 
herself,  "is  the  house  of  Bondage.  How  can  I  spend  a 
month  here  ?  "  She  thought  that  she  would  peep  round 
the  house.  Yet  she  feared  that  she  should  be  considered 
as  intruding  into  things  which  she  had  better  not  meddle 
with.  But  the  screams  became  so  fearful  that  she  could 
no  longer  restrain  herself.  She  rushed  round  the  corner 
of  the  house,  and  came  full  against  a  black  woman  rins 
ing  some  fustian  clothes  in  a  tub  near  the  rain-spout. 
"  Do  dear  tell  me,"  said  she,  "  what  they  are  doing  to 
those  people.  Who  is  whipping  them  ?  What  have  they 
done?"  The  black  woman  stopped,  and  looked  round 
.without  taking  her  hands  from  her  tub,  and  then  said,  as 
she  went  on  rinsing,  "  Lorfull  help  you,  Missis,  dem's  de 
young  uns  scaring  de  birds  out  of  de  grain." 

What  bliss  there  was  to  her  in  that  moment  of  relief ! 
Six  or  eight  little  negroes  were  sauntering  about  at  their 
morning  work,  each  having  a  rude  whip,  with  tape  for  a 
snapper,  interrupting  the  hungry  birds  at  their  breakfast. 

I  expected  to  see  a  wretched,  down-trodden,  alms-house 
looking  set  of  creatures  ;  for  the  word  slave,  and  all  the 
changes  which  are  rung  on  that  word,  made  me  think 
only  of  people  who  are  convicts,  such  as  you  see  in  the 
state-prison  yard  at  Charlestown,  Mass.  I  never  ex 
pected  that  they  would  look  me  in  the  face,  but  would 
skulk  by  me  as  a  spy  or  enemy.  A  Christian  heart  is 
overjoyed  to  find  what  religion  and  society  have  done 
for  these  colored  people.  If  one  who  had  never  heard 
of  "  slavery  "  should  be  set  down  here,  the  Northern  idea 
of  "  bondage"  would  not  soon  occur  to  him. 

In  the  Presbytery  which  includes  Charleston,  S.  C., 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  69 

there  are  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty-nine 
church-members,  and  of  these  one  thousand  six  hundred- 
and  thirty-seven,  more  than  one  half,  are  colored.  In 
State  Street,  Mobile,  there  is  a  colored  Methodist  Church 
who  pay  their  minister,  from  their  own  money,  twelve 
hundred  dollars  a  year.  Not  long  since  they  took  up  a 
voluntary  contribution  for  Home  Missions,  amounting  to 
one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars.  Their  preacher  was 
sent  by  the  Conference,  according  to  rotation,  into  another 
field,  and  the  blacks  presented  him  with  a  valuable  suit 
of  clothes. 

You  see  things  here,  good  and  evil,  side  by  side,  and 
mixed  up  together,  one  thing  counterbalancing  another. 
If  you  reason  theoretically  upon  this  subject,  as  you  do 
"  about  the  moon,"  to  quote  from  your  letter,  it  is  enough 
to  make  one  almost  a  lunatic,  and  I  do  not  wonder  that 
some  of  our  good  people  at  the  North,  who  pore  over  this 
subject  in  this  way,  are  on  the  borders  of  insanity. 

My  great  mistake  at  the  North  with  regard  to  this  sub 
ject  of  slavery  was,  I  reasoned  about  it  in  the  abstract, 
instead  of  considering  it  in  connection  with  those  who  are 
slaves  under  our  laws,  bound  up  with  us  in  our  civil  con 
stitution.  Things  might  be  true  or  false,  right  or  wrong, 
in  connection  with  the  enslavement  of  a  race  who  had 
never  been  slaves,  which  cannot  be  applied  to  the  colored 
people  of  the  South.  Hence,  the  arguments  and  the  ap 
peals  founded  on  the  wrongfulness  of  reducing  you  or  me 
to  slavery  are  obviously  misapplied  when  used  to  urge 
the  emancipation  of  these  slaves.  Moreover,  my  thoughts 
about  slavery  were  governed  by  my  associations  with  the 
word  slave,  in  its  worst  sense.  This  is  wholly  wrong,  and 
it  is  the  source  of  most  of  our  mistakes  on  this  subject. 

Dreadful  things  happen  here  to  some  of  the  slaves  in 


70  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

the  hands  of  passionate  men.  One  slave  who  had  run 
away  was  caught,  and  was  beaten  for  a  long  time,  and 
melted  turpentine  was  then  poured  upon  his  wounds. 
He  lingered  for  several  hours.  But  the  horror  and  ex 
ecration  which  this  deed  met  with  were  no  greater  at  the 
North  than  at  the  South.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  sla 
very,  as  well  as  marriage,  affords  peculiar  provocations 
and  facilities  for  cruel  deeds,  —  according  to  the  doctrine 
of  your  friend  and  fellow-Sophomore.  But  in  which' sec 
tion  there  is  the  more  of  unpunished  wickedness,  I  am 
slow  to  pronounce,  for  I  do  not  wish  to  condemn  my  own 
people,  nor  to  justify  others  in  their  sins.  An  excellent 
minister  in  Cincinnati  not  long  since  preached  a  sermon 
on  murder,  in  which  he  stated  that  "  during  his  residence 
in  that  city,  there  had  been  more  than  one  hundred  mur 
ders,  or  an  average  of  two  a  month,  while  in  no  instance 
had  the  perpetrator  been  executed."  Reading  lately  of  a 
husband  at  the  North  throwing  oil  of  vitriol  from  a  bot 
tle,  filled  for  the  purpose,  over  his  wife's  face  and  neck, 
and  of  a  Northern  clergyman  feeding  his  young  wife,  as 
she  sat  on  his  knee,  with  apple  on  which  he  had  sprinkled 
arsenic,  I  questioned  whether  human  nature  were  not 
about  the  same  everywhere.  The  theoretical  right  of  a 
master,  in  certain  cases,  to  put  his  slave  to  death,  without 
judge  or  jury,  is  controlled  by  the  self-interest  of  the 
owner  who,  of  course,  does  not  recklessly  destroy  his 
own  property.  The  slave-codes  are  no  just  exponent  of 
the  actual  state  of  things  in  slavery.  For  example,  —  by 
law  a  master  may  not  furnish  his  slave  with  less  than  a 
peck  of  corn  a  week.  This  has  a  barbarous  look.  But 
to  see  the  slaves  feasting  on  the  fat  of  the  land  you  certain 
ly  would  not  be  reminded  of  the  "  peck  of  corn,"  except 
by  contrast.  There  must  be  some  legal  standard,  below 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  71 

which  if  an  inhuman  master  falls  in  providing  for  his 
servant,  he  can  be  prosecuted.  Hence  the  "peck  of 
corn."  By  the  will  of  an  eminent  citizen  at  the  North, 
establishing  courses  of  lectures  for  all  coming  time,  the 
pay  of  each  lecturer  is  to  be  determined  by  the  market 
value,  at  the  time,  of  a  bushel  of  wheat.  This  is  a  fair 
standard  for  the  unit  of  measure. 

In  arguing  with  one  who  should  insist  that  the  abuses 
in  slavery  are  a  reason  for  breaking  up  the  institution  in 
this  country,  I  should  feel  justified  in  maintaining  that 
there  are  as  many  instances  of  a  happy  relation  between 
master  and  servant  in  the  Southern  country  as  there  are 
happy  marriages  in  the  same  number  of  households  any 
where.  Let  there  be  four  millions  of  an  inferior,  de 
pendent  race  mixed  up  with  a  superior  race,  anywhere 
on  earth,  and  of  course,  while  human  nature  is  what  it 
is,  there  will  be  hardships,  wrong-doings,  oppressions,  and 
barbarisms.  At  the  North,  we  get  scraps  of  anguish  in 
the  newspapers  relating  to  hardships  at  the  South;  and 
many  pore  upon  them  till  they  make  themselves  half-crazed. 
All  the  circumstances  serving  to  qualify  the  narrative  are 
sometimes  withheld,  and  the  stories  are  told  with  dramatic 
art.  There  is  sorrow  enough  everywhere  to  furnish  ma 
terial  for  such  kind  of  writing,  especially  to  those  who 
make  it  their  calling,  or  find  it  for  their  interest,  to  pub 
lish  it.  But  the  goings-on  of  life,  at  the  South,  with  its 
alleviations  and  comforts,  the  practical  mitigations  of  an 
oppressive  system,  theoretical  evils  qualified  by  difference 
of  color,  constitution,  and  history,  and  all  the  goodness 
and  mercy  which  Christianity  and  a  well-ordered  state 
of  society  provide,  we  at  the  North  do  not  see.  Nor  do 
our  people  consider  that  running  away,  and  the  complaints 
of  the  slaves,  are  partly  chargeable  to  the  discontent  and 


72  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

restlessness  of  human  nature ;  but  we  seem  to  take  it  for 
granted  that  every  one  who  flees  from  the  South  is  as 
though  he  had  escaped  from  a  prison-ship. 

While  at  the  North,  I  remember  reading  an  article, 
signed  with  initials,  in  a  prominent  Massachusetts  maga 
zine,  which  contained  this  sentence :  "  Arsenic  is  univer 
sally  in  possession  of  the  negroes;  but  it  is  considered 
the  part  of  wisdom,  where  families  are  poisoned,  that  the 
fact  should  be  kept  as  secret  as  possible."  This  was 
brought  very  powerfully  to  my  mind  one  day  on  passing 
through  King  Street,  in  Charleston,  and  seeing  for  a 
painted  sign  over  an  apothecary's  shop,  a  tall,  benevolent- 
looking  negro,  in  his  shirt  sleeves,  behind  a  golden  mor 
tar,  with  the  pestle  in  his  hands,  as  though  at  work. 

Now,  I  thought  with  myself,  as  I  stood  and  enjoyed 
the  sight,  what  a  palpable  and  eloquent,  though  unde 
signed  and  silent,  refutation  that  is,  of  all  such  Northern 
chimeras.  If  poisons  are  mixed  with  articles  of  food  or 
medicine  by  the  negroes  with  any  noticeable  frequency, 
the  sign  of  a  negro  compounding  medicines  for  public 
sale  would  surely  be,  to  customers,  the  most  detersive 
sign  which  an  apothecary  could  erect  over  his  premises. 
That  little  incident,  and  things  like  it,  which  are  meeting 
you  at  every  turn,  show  the  state  of  things  here  to  be 
in  pleasing  contrast  to  the  horrors  with  which  the  im 
aginations  of  many  of  us  Northerners  are  peopled.  I  find, 
in  the  "  Charleston  Mercury,"  a  good  cut  of  this  "  negro 
and  golden  mortar,"  and  I  send  it  to  you  as  an  appro 
priate  answer  to  much  of 'your  letter. 

Our  landlord,  driving  us  about  the  country  the  other 
day,  and  needing  silver  change,  came  to  a  gang  of  slaves 
in  a  field,  and  cried  out,  "  Boys,  got  any  silver  for  a  five 
dollar  gold  piece  ? "  Several  hands  went  into  as  many 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  73 

pockets,  at  once,  and  a  lively  fellow  among  them  getting 
the  start,  jumped  over  the  fence,  and  changed  the  money. 
I  had  been  here  a  month  when  I  received  your  letter, 
and  when  I  read  it  I  at  first  laughed  as  heartily,  I  sus 
pect,  as  "  the  pro-slavery  Senior "  did.  'J?hen  I-  pitied 
you,  and  I  pitied  myself  for  my  own  former  ign.orance, 
and  I  pitied  very  many  of  our  Northern  people,  and,  not 
the  least,  such  persons  as  poor  "  Isaiah,"  who  I  know  are 
honest,  but  are  grievously  misled.  The  word  slavery 
is,  to  us,  an  awful  word.  Very  much  of  our  anti-slavery 
feeling  is  a  perfectly  natural  instinct.  You  cannot  see 
Java  sparrows  in  a  cage,  nor  even  a  mother-hen  tied  to 
her  coop,  without  a  lurking  wish  to  give  them  liberty.  On 
thinking  of  being  "  a  slave,"  we  immediately  make  the 
case  our  own,  and  imagine  what  it  would  be  for  us  to  be 
in  bondage  to  the  will  of  another.  We  cannot  easily  be 
convinced  that  this  is  not  exactly  parallel  with  being  one 
of  the  slaves  at  the  South,  nor  that  to  be  a  slave  does  not 
have  these  things  for  its  inseparable  conditions,  which,  we 
imagine,  are  always  obtruding  their  direful  visages  ;  name 
ly,  "  auction-block,"  "  overseer,"  "  whip,"  "  chattelism," 
"  separations,"  "  down-trodden,"  "  cattle."  Hence  it  is 
easy  for  orators  and  preachers  to  work  on  our  sympathies. 
There  are  scattered  facts  enough  to  justify  any  tale  which 
any  public  speaker  chooses  to  relate.  I  confess  that  my 
respect  for  many  of  our  Northern  people  has  not  risen, 
as  I  see  them  from  this  point  of  view.  They  ought  not 
to  be  so  easily  duped,  so  ready  to  believe  evil,  so  quickly 
carried  away  by  partial  representations,  and  so  unwilling 
to  take  comprehensive  views  of  such  a  subject  as  this. 
I  condemn  myself  in  speaking  thus ;  I  partly  blame  the 
novel-writers,  and  the  editors  of  party  papers,  and  politi 
cal  leaders.  But  we  ought  at  the  North  to  understand 
4 


74  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

this  subject  better,  to  listen  willingly  to  information  from 
great  and  good  men  who  have  spent  their  lives  among 
the  slaves,  and  to  discriminate  between  the  evil  and  the 
good.  The  result  may  be  that  we  shall  not  change  our 
inbred  views,  nor  cease  to  dissent  from  those  who  advo 
cate  slavery  as  a  necessary  means  of  civilization  in  its 
highest  forms  ;  but  we  shall  certainly  differ  from  those 
who  declare  it  to  be,  practically,  an  unmitigated  curse  to 
all  concerned.  I  am  often  made  to  wish  that  the  South 
erners  could  be  relieved  of  our  Northern  hostility  and  its 
effects  upon  them,  just  to  see  them  laboring,  as  they  then 
would,  to  correct  certain  evils  which  ought  to  be  redressed. 
We  are  all  apt  to  neglect  our  duty,  more  or  less,  when 
we  are  suffering  abuse. 

Educate  this  people,  some  years  longer,  in  the  way  in 
which  they  are  going  on,  and  they  cannot  be  slaves  in 
any  objectionable  sense.  Tens  of  thousands  of  them,  now, 
are  not  slaves  in  any  such  sense,  and  they  never  can  be  ; 
they  could  not  be  recklessly  sold  at  auction  ;  the  owners 
would  revolt  at  it,  and  those  in  want  of  servants  would 
meet  with  great  competition  in  obtaining  such  as  these. 
A  church-member  who  should  separate  husband  and  wife 
for  no  fault,  would  be  disciplined  at  the  South  as  surely 
as  for  inhumanity  at  the  North.  But  oh,  we  say  at  the 
North,  only  to  think,  that  all  those  fine-looking  people 
whom  Hattie  saw  from  the  barouche,  that  Monday 
afternoon,  were  liable  on  Tuesday  morning  to  have  their 
kid  gloves  and  finery  taken  from  them,  and  to  be  marched 
off  to  the  auction-block !  Hence  our  commiseration. 
And  it  is  a  most  groundless  commiseration. 

One  thing  is  especially  impressed  on  my  mind.  There 
being  sins  and  evils  in  slavery,  as  all  confess,  there  are 
men  and  women  here  who  are  perfectly  competent 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  75 

to  manage  them  without  our  help.  There  is  nothing 
that  seems  to  me  more  offensive  than  our  self-righteous 
ness,  as  I  must  call  it,  at  the  North,  in  exalting  ourselves 
above  our  fathers  and  brethren  of  all  Christian  denomi 
nations  at  the  South ;  as  though  there  were^no  conscience, 
no  Christian  sensibility,  no  piety  here,  but  it  must  .all  be 
supplied  from  the  North.  When  I  hear  these  Southern 
ministers  preach  and  pray,  and  see  them  laboring  for  the 
colored  people,  and  then  think  of  our  designation  of  our 
selves  at  the  North,  "  friends  of  the  slave,"  and  remember 
that  all  our  anti-slavery  influence  has  been  positively  in 
jurious  to  the  best  interests  of  the  slave  at  the  South,  I 
have  frequently  been  led  to  exclaim,  What  an  inesti 
mable  blessing  it  would  be  to  this  colored  race,  and  to  our 
whole  land,  if  anti-slavery,  in  the  offensive  sense  of  that 
word,  could  at  once  and  forever  cease !  and  I  have  as 
often  questioned  in  my  own  mind  whether  slavery  has 
not  been,  and  is  not  now,  the  occasion  of  more  sin  at  the 
North  than  at  the  South,  and  whether  we  at  the  North 
are  not  more  displeasing  in  the  sight  of  God  for  the  things 
which  are  said  and  done  there,  in  connection  with  anti- 
slavery,  than  the  South  with  all  the  sins  and  evils  inci 
dent  to  slave-holding.  I  am  coming  to  this  belief. 

The  people  who  most  frequently  excite  my  commis 
eration  are  the  free  blacks.  They  are  "scattered  and 
peeled."  The  Free  States  dread  their  coming ;  they  can 
not  rise  in  the  Slave  States.  Even  the  slaves  look  down 
upon  them,  sometimes.  "  Who  are  you  ?  "  said  a  slave  to 
a  free  black,  in  my  hearing ;  "  you  don't  belong  to  any 
body  ! "  Some  States  have  given  them  notice  to  quit, 
within  a  specified  time,  or  they  must  be  sold.  Some  here 
insist  that  slavery  is  the  only  proper  condition  for  the 
blacks,  and  they  would  reduce  them  back  to  bondage. 


76  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

Others  remonstrate  at  this  as  cruel.  Surely  it  is  a  choice 
of  evils  for  them,  to  be  free,  or  to  be  slaves,  if  they  remain 
here.  There  is  one  thought  that  affords  a  ray  of  conso 
lation,  —  they  are  better  off,  in  either  condition,  than  they 
once  were  in  Africa.  It  is  unquestionable  to  my  mind 
that  their  relation  to  the  whites,  even  in  bondage,  is,  as  the 
general  rule,  mercy  to  them,  while  they  are  on  the  same 
soil  with  the  whites.  Allow  it  to  be  theoretically  wrong 
to  be  a  slave,  —  it  is,  under  existing  circumstances,  pro 
tection  and  a  blessing,  compared  with  any  arrangement 
which  has  yet  been  proposed.  I  have  not  sufficient  pa 
tience  to  argue  with  those,  North  or  South,  who  contend 
for  slavery  as  a  normal  condition.  I  should  be  called  at 
the  North  "  pro-slavery ; "  but  the  North  is  in  a  passion 
on  this  subject.  I  am  not,  and  I  never  can  be,  an  advo 
cate  for  this  relation,  in  itself,  but  as  a  present  necessity. 

I  once  heard  a  speaker  at  an  anti-slavery  meeting  at 
home  say,  "  They  tell  us  how  elevated  the  blacks  are, 
how  intelligent,  how  pious ;  that  shows  how  fit  they  are 
for  freedom,  how  wrong  it  is  to  hold  such  people  in  bond 
age.  As  much  as  you  raise  the  slaves  in  our  opinion, 
you  deepen  the  guilt  of  the  slave-holder." 

This  used  to  dwell  much  on  my  mind.  I  see  the  thing 
differently  now.  You  remember  your  Uncle  Enoch,  from 
Madras,  who  made  your  first  Malay  kite.  I  remember  a 
fable  which  he  told  you  when  he  was  flying  the  kite  for 
the  first  time.  "  A  kite,"  he  said,  "  high  in  the  air,  reasoned 
thus  :  If,  notwithstanding  this  string,  I  fly  so  high,  what 
would  I  not  do,  if  I  could  break  away  !  It  gave  a  dash 
and  became  free,  and  was  soon  in  the  woods."  I  do  not 
mean  to  strain  the  comparison ;  but,  certainly,  a  string 
has  raised,  and  now  keeps  up,  the  colored  race,  here. 
How  they  would  do,  if  the  string  were  cut,  let  wiser  heads 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  77 

than    mine  decide.      They  cannot  have  my  scissors,  at 
present. 

The  way  to  be  friends  of  the  slave,  I  now  see,  is  to  be 
the  real  friends  of  their  masters,  and  to  pray  that  the  in 
fluences  of  truth  and  love  may  fill  their  hearts.  Where  this 
is  the  case,  the  slaves,  as  a  laboring  class,  are  better  off 
than  any  separate  class  of  laboring  people  on  earth,  both 
for  this  world  and  the  next. 

As  to  setting  them  free  at  once  and  indiscriminately,  it 
would  be  as  unjust  to  them  as  it  originally  was  to  steal 
them  from  Africa.  So  it  appears  to  me.  What  God 
means  to  do  with  them,  no  one  can  tell.  That  He  has 
been  doing  a  marvellous  work  of  mercy  for  the  poor 
creatures  is  manifest.  They  were  slaves  at  home  ;  they 
have  changed  their  situation  to  their  benefit.  I  have 
made  up  my  mind  to  leave  this  great  problem  —  the 
destiny  of  the  blacks  —  to  my  Maker,  and,  in  the  mean 
time,  pray  in  behalf  of  the  owners,  that  they  may  have 
a  heart  to  act  toward  them  according  to  the  golden  rule. 
I  am  glad  that  I  am  not  oppressed  with  the  responsibility 
of  ownership.  Those  who  assume  it  should  be  encour 
aged  by  us  to  treat  their  charge  as  a  trust  committed  to 
them  for  a  season.  I  do  not  argue,  much  less  plead,  for 
the  continuance  of  this  system  ;  it  may  be  abolished  very 
soon,  but  that  is  with  Providence.  I  have  acquired  no 
feelings  toward  the  institution  which  would  not  lead  me 
to  rejoice  in  emancipation  the  moment  that  it  would  be 
for  the  good  of  the  colored  people. 

You  are  looking  for  my  letter  to  furnish  you  with 
details  of  horrors  in  slavery.  Wherever  poor  human 
nature  is,  there  you  will  find  imperfection  and  sin  ;  and 
of  course  power  over  others  is  always  liable  to  great 
abuses.  If  I  were  to  follow  the  plan  of  those  who  col- 


78  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

lect  the  horrors  of  slavery  and  spread  them  out  before 
our  Northern  friends,  but  should  gather  merely  the  beau 
tiful  and  touching  incidents  which  I  meet  with,  and  which 
are  related  to  me,  I  could  make  people  think  that  slavery 
is  not  an  evil.  But  I  have  not  seen  an  intelligent  South 
erner  who,  admitting  all  that  we  had  said  about  the  hap 
piness  of  the  slaves  as  a  class,  did  not  go  far  beyond  me 
in  declaring  that  the  presence  of  a  subject,  abject  race, 
cannot  fail  to  be  an  evil.  There  is  not  an  ultraist  at  the 
North,  whom,  if  he  had  their  confidence,  and  were  not 
put  in  antagonism  to  him,  the  Southerners  could  not 
make  ashamed,  and  put  to  silence,  by  telling  him  evil 
things  about  slavery,  which  he  had  never  contemplated, 
and  by  admitting  most  fully  things  which  he  would  ex 
pect  them  to  deny.  But  they  are  placed  in  a  false  posi 
tion  by  his  clamor  and  anger,  which  set  them  against 
him  and  his  doctrines.  They  say,  "  Allowing  all  that  the 
North  asserts,  here  are  the  colored  people  on  our  hands ; 
what  are  we  to  do  with  them  ?  "  Not  one  of  the  North 
ern  "  friends  of  the  slave,"  nor  all  of  them  together,  have 
ever  proposed  a  feasible  plan  with  regard  to  the  disposal 
of  the  slaves,  which  would  be  kind  or  even  humane  to 
the  blacks.  Moreover,  theoretical  arguments  against 
slavery,  and  representations  of  it,  from  many  quarters, 
are  so  palpably  wrong,  that  replies  to  them  and  refuta 
tions  are  counted  by  us  at  the  North  as  defences  of  "  op 
pression  ; "  which  they  were  never  designed  to  be.  I  am 
surprised  at  the  extent  and  depth  of  real  anti-slavery 
feeling  at  the  South.  Sometimes  I  question  whether 
Providence  is  not  permitting  the  antagonism  of  the  North 
and  South  to  continue  just  to  compel  the  South  to  hold 
these  colored  people  in  connection  with  themselves  for 
their  good,  until  God's  purposes  of  mercy  for  them  are 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  79 

accomplished,  and  "  the  time,  times  and  half  a  time  "  of 
their  captivity  is  fulfilled.  If  Northern  resistance  to 
slavery  had  ceased,  perhaps  the  South  would  have  rid 
herself  of  the  blacks  sooner  than  would  have  been  for 
their  good. 

I  hope  that  you  will  not  think  me  "  a  strong-minded 
woman  "  in  what  I  here  repeat  to  you  of  the  opinions  and 
expressions  which  I  have  gathered  in  listening  to  the  con 
versation  of  intelligent  people  on  this  subject.  I  write 
these  things  for  your  instruction,  and  also  as  memoranda 
for  my  own  future  use. 

It  is  a  cherished  idea  with  many  excellent  people  that 
the  time  will  come  when  there  will  not  be  a  slave  in  this 
land,  nor  on  the  earth.  If  they  mean  by  this  that  the 
time  will  come  when  every  man  in  every  face  will  see  a 
brother  and  a  friend,  it  is  certainly  true.  But  if  they 
mean  by  it  that  ownership  in  man  will  come  to  an  end, 
their  opinion  and  prophecy  are  as  good  as  those  of  men 
who  should  undertake  to  differ  from  them,  and  no  better ; 
while  both  would  be  entirely  presumptuous  in  being  posi 
tive  on  such  a  subject.  Some  people  seem  to  think  that, 
in  the  good  time  coming,  it  is  as  though  we  should  dwell 
out-of-doors,  among  flowers  and  fruits,  with  few  wants, 
these  being  supplied  by  the  spontaneous  offerings  of  nature. 

Others,  however,  suppose  that  we  shall  still  need  some 
to  shovel,  take  care  of  horses,  work  over  the  fire  the 
greater  part  of  the  day  in  preparing  food,  go  of  errands, 
and,  in  short,  be  a  serving  class.  They  suppose  that  the 
same  sovereign  God  which  distributes  instincts,  and  wis 
dom,  variously,  to  animals,  and  gifts  of  understanding  to 
men,  will,  in  the  same  sovereign  way,  create  men  and 
women  with  such  degrees  of  capacity  and  suscepti 
bility  as  will  lead  inevitably  to  their  being  superiors  and 


80  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

inferiors,  and  that  this  will  be,  as  it  is  now  where  love 
and  kindness  reign,  the  source  of  the  greatest  happiness 
to  all  concerned. 

This  being  so,  none  of  us  will  venture  to  say  that  no 
one  of  the  existing  races  of  men  will,  to  the  end  of  time, 
be  of  such  gentle,  dependent  natures  as  to  find  their 
highest  happiness  and  welfare  in  being,  generally,  in  the 
capacity  of  servants.  Some  of  all  races,  we  do  not  ob 
ject,  may  be  servants  to  the  end  of  time.  No  one  will 
say  to  his  Maker  that  it  will  be  unjust  for  Him  to  put  a 
whole  race  of  men  forever  in  that  serving  condition,  mak 
ing  them,  according  to  their  capacity,  most  happy  in  being 
so.  For  "  Who  hath  been  His  counsellor  ?  "  That  the 
Africans  are  under  a  cloud  of  God's  mysterious  provi 
dence,  no  one  denies.  I  will  not  dictate  to  my  Maker 
when  He  shall  remove  that  cloud,  while  I  still  endeavor  to 
mitigate  the  effects  of  it  upon  my  fellow-creatures,  the 
blacks.  I  do  not  know  that  he  may  not  perpetuate,  to 
the  end  of  time,  a  relationship  of  dependency  to  other 
races  in  this  African  race.  I  know  nothing  about  it. 
But  I  always  feel  impelled  to  say  these  things,  when  I 
hear  good  men  confidently  predicting  that  ownership 
in  man  will  soon  and  forever  come  to  an  end.  I  re 
ply,  It  may  be  in  the  highest  measure  necessary  to  the 
happiness  of  the  human  family,  at  its  best  estate,  that  one 
race,  or  that  races,  should  be  in  the  relation  of  inferiors, 
finding  their  very  best  advantage  in  the  relative  place 
which  a  sovereign  God  has  assigned  them  in  the  scale  of 
intelligence,  by  holding  that  relation  to  the  end  of  time. 
Of  course  it  would  cease  to  be  a  curse  ;  it  would  become 
one  of  those  subordinate  parts  in  the  great  orchestral 
music  of  life  which  subdue  and  soften  it  for  the  highest 
effect.  If  any  one  gets  angry  at  such  an  idea,  I  leave 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  81 

him  to  his  folly  ;  for  he  is  angry  without  a  cause  at  ine, 
who  have,  in  this  idea,  expressed  no  wish  that  it  may  be 
true  ;  and  he  is  angry  that  his  Maker  should  do  a  thing 
which  contradicts  his  pet  notions  about  "  freedom."  But 
the  singular  fact  of  slavery  in  this  land,  continued  and 
defended  under  all  political  changes,  and  now  having  the 
prospect  of  being  more  firmly  established  than  ever  by 
means  of  our  great  national  commotion  on  this  subject,  is 
enough  to  make  a  serious  mind  reflect  whether  it  be 
wholly  the  work  of  Satan,  or  whether  the  providence  of 
God  be  not  concerned  in  this  great  and  difficult  problem. 

It  is  certainly  remarkable  that  religion,  which  once 
gained  such  a  footing  in  Africa,  so  soon  and  entirely  died 
out  there,  but  that  the  Africans,  transported  to  our  land, 
are  of  all  races  the  most  susceptible  to  religious  influ 
ences.  If  we  should  visit  a  foreign  missionary  field,  and 
learn  that  the  mission  had  been  blessed  to  the  extent 
which  has  characterized  the  labors  of  Christians  at  the 
South  for  their  slaves,  of  whom,  according  to  the  "  Edu 
cational  Journal,"  Forsyth,  Ga.,  there  are  now  four 
hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand  connected  with  the 
churches  of  all  denominations,  we  should  regard  it  as 
the  chief  of  all  the  works  of  God  in  connection  with 
modern  missions.  It  is  this  providential  and  Christian 
view  of  slavery  which  quiets  my  mind.  Now,  suppose 
that,  contemplating  a  foreign  missionary  field  where  such 
results  should  be  found,  one  should  object :  "  But  there 
are  evils  there  ;  people  do  not  all  treat  their  dependants 
as  they  ought ;  hardships,  cruelties,  and  some  barbarisms 
remain  ; "  —  we  should  not,  I  apprehend,  proceed  to  scut 
tle  such  a  ship  to  drown  the  vermin.  But  I  can  see  that 
Satan  must  be  in  great  wrath  to  find  himself  spoiled  of 
so  many  subjects.  One  stronger  than  he  has  brought 
4* 


82  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

here  hundreds  of  thousands,  who,  in  Africa,  would  have 
perished  forever,  but  who  are  now  civilized  and  Chris 
tianized.  Satan  would  be  glad,  I  think,  to  see  American 
slavery  come  to  an  end.  We  have  no  right  to  go  and 
steal  people  in  order  to  convert  them ;  the  salvation  of 
these  slaves  will  not,  in  one  iota,  extenuate  the  guilt  and 
punishment  of  those  who  were  engaged  in  the  slave-trade. 
But  "  the  wrath  of  men  shall  praise  Thee."  In  the  writ 
ings  of  anti-slavery  men  I  do  not  remember  to  have  met 
with  cordial  acknowledgments  of  what  religion  has  done 
for  the  slaves  at  the  South.  They  coldly  admit  the  fact, 
but  often  they  speak  disparagingly  of  the  negro's  religion, 
which  is  full  as  good  as  that  of  converts  in  our  foreign 
missionary  fields,  as  good,  judging  from  some  things  in 
Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  as  that  of  some  converts 
to  whom  he  wrote.  Our  Northern  anti-slavery  people 
cannot  bear  to  have  anything  good  discovered  or  praised 
in  connection  with  slavery. 

My  own  hopeful  persuasion  is,  that  great  and  marvel 
lous  works  of  Divine  Providence  and  grace  are  in  reserve 
for  the  African  people  in  their  own  land,  and  that  we  are 
to  prove  to  have  been  their  educators.  Most  sincerely 
do  I  hope,  however,  that  the  number  of  scholars  and 
future  propagators  of  religion  and  civilization,  imported 
here  from  Africa,  will  not  need  to  be  increased,  consider 
ing  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  of  deaths  by 
violence  take  place  in  procuring  a  given  number  of 
slaves.  This  is  but  one  objection  ;  others  are  sufficiently 
obvious.  Both  parts  of  that  passage  of  Scripture  are 
exceedingly  interesting  :  "  Princes  shall  come  out  of 
Egypt ;  Ethiopia  shall  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God." 
Egypt,  the  basest  of  kingdoms,  shall  yet  send  forth  first- 
rate  men  ;  and  Ethiopia,  even,  shall  be  the  worshipper 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  83 

of  God.  I  hope  that  these  prophecies,  though  fulfilled 
once,  are  yet  to  have  their  great  accomplishment.  This 
is  my  persuasion,  and  I  trust  that  every  nation  will  be 
independent ;  but  I  shall  not  discard  the  Bible,  if  my 
interpretation  and  hope  should  fail.  Ethiopia  is  cer 
tainly  stretching  out  her  hands  unto  God  in  our  Southern 
country. 

Hattie  received  some  papers  for  children  from  a  young 
friend  at  the  North,  last  week.  After  attending  the  col 
ored  Sabbath-school  in  ,  and  teaching  a  class  of 

nicely-dressed,  bright  little  "  slave "  gh'ls,  and  hearing 
the  school  sing  their  beautiful  songs,  with  melodious 
voices,  such  as,  I  can  truly  say,  I  never  heard  surpassed 
at  the  North,  and  after  looking  upon  the  teachers,  who 
represented  the  very  flower  of  Southern  society,  the  su 
perintendent  being  a  man  who  would  adorn  any  station, 
you  cannot  fully  conceive  with  what  feelings  I  read,  in 
one  of  Hattie's  little  papers  from  the  North,  these  lines, 
set  to  music  for  the  use  of  Northern  children  : 

"  I  dwell  where  the  sun  shines  gayly  and  bright, 
Where  flowers  of  rich  beauty  are  ever  in  sight; 
Here  blooms  the  magnolia,  here  orange-trees  wave; 
But  oh,  not  for  /we, —  I'm  a  poor  little  slave. 

"  They  say  {  Sunny  South  '  is  the  name  of  my  home ; 
'Tis  here  that  your  robins  and  blue-birds  are  come, 
While  snows  cover  nests  up,  and  angry  winds  rave ; 
They  may  rest  here,  —  not  //  /'m  a  poor  little  slave. 

"  Here  beautiful  mothers,  'mid  splendors  untold, 
Their  fairy -like  babes  to  their  fond  bosoms  fold ; 
My  mammy's  worked  out,  and  lies  here  in  the  grave; 
There's  none  to  kiss  ?ne,  —  I'm  a  poor  little  slave. 

"  I've  heard  mistress  telling  her  sweet  little  son, 
What  Jesus,  the  loving,  for  children  has  done; 
Perhaps  little  black  ones  he  also  will  save ; 
I  ask  him  to  take  me,  a  poor  little  slave !  " 


84  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

No  wonder,  Gustavus,  that  you  write  such  letters  as 
your  last,  fed  and  nourished  as  you  are  on  such  things 
as  this.  I  took  it  with  me  that  evening  to  a  missionary 

party  at  the  house  of  Judge  .  I  read  the  lines. 

The  ladies  said  nothing  for  a  time,  till  at  last  one  said 
to  me,  "  Such  things  have  helped  us  in  seceding."  The 
Judge  took  the  lines,  looked  them  over,  and,  smiling, 
handed  them  back  to  me,  saying,  "  Madam,  is  Massachu 
setts  a  dark  place  ?  "  "  Yes,"  said  a  young  gentleman, 
"  and  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  are  full  of  the  habita 
tions  of  cruelty."  "  Oh,"  said  I,  "  how  prejudiced  you  all 
are  !"  Whereupon  they  all  laughed.  "Now,"  said  I,  "you 
think,  no  doubt,  that  the  author  of  such  a  piece  is  malign. 
I  know  nothing  of  its  origin,  but  I  venture  to  say  it  was 
written  by  one  whose  heart  overflows  with  love  to  every 
body,  but  who  is  *  laboring  under  a  delusion.'  "  I  did  not 
tell  them  of  the  "  delusion  "  which  you  were  "  under,"  in 
the  Senior's  room,  but  I  said,  "  I  have  a  nephew  in  a 
New  England  college  who  has  the  Northern  evil  very 
badly.  But  he  is  so  very  kind.  Set  him  to  write  poetry 
about  the  South  and  he  would  produce  just  such  lamen 
table  stanzas."  Nothing  will  cure  these  fancies,  about 
oranges  and  magnolias  not  blooming  for  the  little  ne 
groes,  so  well  as  to  bring  these  good  people  where 
they  can  see  them  pelting  one  another  with  oranges, 
such  as  these  poets  never  dreamed  of,  and  making 
money  by  selling  magnolias  to  passengers  at  the  rail 
way  stations. 

"  Here  beautiful  mothers,  'mid  splendors  untold,"  etc. 
I  went  with  the  wife  of  a  planter  to  her  "  Maternal 
Association  "  of  slave-mothers.  She  gathers  the  fifteen 
mothers  among  her  servants  once  a  fortnight,  and  spends 
an  afternoon  talking  to  them  about  the  education  of  their 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  85 

children,  and  reading  to  them  ;  and  when  she  knelt  with 
them  and  prayed,  I  cried  so  all  the  time  that  I  hardly 
heard  anything.  Oh  what  a  tale  of  love  was  that  Mater 
nal  Association  !  "  Here  beautiful  mothers  'mid  splen 
dors  untold,"  etc.  ;  —  those  words  kept  themselves  in  my 
thoughts.  Now  tell  this  to  some  great  "  friend  of  the 
slave,"  in  Massachusetts,  and  what  will  he  say  ?——  "  All 
very  good,  I  dare  say;  hope  she  will  go  a  little  further, 
and  give  those  fifteen  their  liberty."  I  sometimes  say, 
"  Must  I  go  back  to  the  North,  and  hear  and  read  such 
things?" 

Yes,  it  is  such  things  as  these,  simple  and  inconsider 
able  as  you  may  deem  them,  which  are  dividing  us  irrec 
oncilably,  and  breaking  up  the  Union.  It  is  not  Messrs. 

,  nor  their  frenzy,  but  it  is  Christian  brethren  who 

allow  their  Sabbath-school  children,  for  example,  to  say 
and  sing,  "  I've  heard  mistress  telling  her  sweet  little 
son,  what  Jesus,  the  loving,  for  children  has  done,"  making 
the  impression  that  such  a  Christian  mother  leaves  a  col 
ored  child  in  her  house,  without  instruction,  to  draw  the 
inference,  if  it  will,  that  Jesus,  perhaps,  will  love  a  "  poor 
little  slave  !  "  There  are  no  words  to  depict  the  feeling 
of  injustice  and  cruelty  which  this  conveys  to  the  hearts 
of  our  Christian  friends  at  the  South.  "  Let  us  go  out  of 
the  Union  !"  they  cry,  in  their  blind  grief;  but  where  will 
they  go  ?  for  while  our  Northern  people  write  and  pub 
lish  and  sin  or  and  teach  their  children  to  sin0"  such  things, 

O  O  C5    " 

we  can  have  nothing  but  mutual  hatred,  and  perhaps  ex 
terminating  wars.  We  must  change.  If  our  Northern 
people  would  discriminate,  and,  while  retaining  all  their 
natural  feelings  against  oppression  and  man-stealing, 
would  admit  that  "  ownership  in  man  "  is  not  necessarily 
oppression  nor  man-stealing,  they  would  do  themselves 


86  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

justice  and  contribute  to  the  peace  of  the  country.  "  But 
O  ! "  they  say,  "  look  at  the  iniquitous  system.  If  separat 
ing  families,  and  destroying  marriage,  and  liberty  to  chas 
tise  at  pleasure,  and  to  kill,  are  not  sin,  what  is  sin  ?  "  So 
they  impute  the  system,  and  everything  in  it,  to  the  people 
who  live  under  it.  How  a  system  can  be  a  sin,  it  would 
puzzle  some  of  them,  who  say  that  all  sin  consists  in  ac 
tion,  to  explain.  And  when  they  came  to  look  into  the 
system  itself,  they  would  find,  that  if  slavery  is  to  exist, 
some  laws  regulating  it  are,  of  necessity,  self-protective, 
and  must  be  coercive.  Even  in  Illinois,  it  is  enacted  that 
a  black  man  shall  not  be  a  witness  against  a  white  man. 
But  if  the  slaves  could  swear  in  court,  every  one  sees 
that  the  whites  must  be  at  the  mercy  of  their  servants. 
The  testimony  of  the  honest  among  them  is  procured, 
though  indirectly,  and  it  has  weight  with  juries ;  but  it  is 
a  wise  provision  to  exclude  them  as  sworn  witnesses.  So 
of  other  things,  which  theoretically  are  oppressive,  but 
practically  right ;  while  many  things  in  the  system  which 
are  rigorous  are  as  little  used  as  the  equipments  in  an 
arsenal  in  times  of  peace. 

When  you  quote  John  Wesley's  words  and  apply  them 
to  the  South  :  "  Slavery  is  the  sum  of  all  villanies,"  you 
unconsciously  utter  a  fearful  slander.  Whatever  may 
have  been  true  of  British  slavery,  in  foreign  plantations, 
in  Wesley's  day,  the  good  man  never  would  utter  such 
words  about  our  Southern  people  could  he  see  and  enjoy 
that  which  gladdens  every  Christian  heart.  If  slavery 
be,  necessarily,  "the  sum  of  all  villanies,"  as  you  and 
many  use,  the  expression,  the  relation  cannot  exist  with 
out  making  each  slave-holder  a  villain,  in  all  the  degrees 
of  villany.  You  will  do  well  to  look  into  the  cant 
phrases  of  "  freedom,"  before  you  indulge  in  the  use  of 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  87 

them.  The  bishops  and  clergy  of  the  noble  army  of 
Methodists  in  the  South  wjjuld  not  sustain  their  great 
chief  in  applying  the  phrase  in  question  to  the  actual 
state  of  things  in  the  Southern  country.  Wesley  used 
those  words  concerning  slavery  in  foreign'  colonies ;  he 
had  not  seen  it  mixed  up  with  society  in  England,  as  it 
is  in  the  South. 

Taking  the  blacks  as  they  are,  and  comparing  them 
also  with  what  they  would  be  in  Africa,  or  if  set  free,  to 
remain  in  connection  with  the  whites,  slavery  is  not  a 
curse.  To  be  free  is,  of  course,  in  itself  a  blessing.  But 
it  depends  on  many  things  whether,  under  existing  cir 
cumstances,  being  a  slave  here  is  practically  a  curse. 
Our  people  generally  insist  that  it  must  be,  and  therefore 
that  it  is.  Here  they  are  mistaken,  as  I  now  view  the 
subject.  The  British  people  and  the  French,  looking  at 
the  blacks  in  a  colony,  settle  the  question  of  emancipa 
tion  in  their  own  minds  without  much  difficulty.  But  it 
would  be  found  to  be  a  different  thing  to  emancipate 
the  colored  race,  to  live  side  by  side  with  the  English 
people  in  the  mother-country.  In  that  case,  a  contest 
between  the  two  races  for  the  possession  of  power,  and 
innumerable  offences  and  practical  difficulties,  would,  in 
time,  lead  to  the  extermination,  or  expatriation,  of  one 
of  the  two  races,  or  to  their  intermarriage,  if  the  univer 
sal  history  of  such  conjunction  of  races  is  any  guide. 

I  do  not  wonder  that  the  good  lady  with  the  "  marsh- 
mallow  "  exclaimed  so  at  your  groundless  commiseration 
of  the  sick  among  the  slaves.  You  have  no  more  idea 
of  the  practical  relation  between  the  whites  and  the 
blacks,  the  owners  and  the  slaves,  than  most  of  the  Eng 
lish  people,  who  have  never  been  here,  have  of  our  Fed 
eral  and  State  relations. 


88  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

I  will  tell  you  an  incident  which  I  know  to  be  literally 
true. 

A  lady  from  a  free  state  was  visiting  at  the  South. 
Calling  upon  a  married  lady,  a  near  relative  of  one  who 
has  been  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  she  found 
her  with  a  little  sick  black  babe  at  her  breast. 

The  Northern  lady  started  with  astonishment.  I  am 
not  informed  whether  she  was  what  is  called  among  us  a 
"  friend  of  the  slave  ; "  the  eminent  lady  friend  whom 
she  visited  certainly  was  such,  in  the  best  sense.  The 
Northern  lady's  feelings  of  repugnance  would  not  be 
found  to  be  peculiar  to  her  among  our  Northern  people. 
The  little  babe  died  on  the  lap  of  the  Southern  lady. 

So  you  see  that  there  are  more  things  here  than  are 
dreamed  of  in  your  philosophy.  When  you  stigmatize 
the  Southerners  as  oppressors!,  my  only  consolation  for 
you  is  that  you  know  not  what  you  do.  Imagine,  now, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Blank,  a-t  the  North,  relating  that  little  in 
cident  :  u  Behold  and  see  this  monstrous  picture  of  infinite 
hypocrisy  :  The  Slave-power  with  a  slave  at  its  breast ! 
Yes,  rather  than  lose  one  or  two  hundred  dollars'  worth 
of  human  "  property,"  a  distinguished  lady  slave-holder 
will  give  her  nourishment  to  a  slave-infant.  So  they  fat 
ten  the  accursed  system  out  of  their  own  bodies  and 
souls."  Such  is  a  fair  specimen  of  this  man's  frenzy; 
and  there  are  multitudes  all  over  the  Free  States  who  will 
listen  to  such  language  and  applaud  it.  But  how  cruel  it 
is,  how  low  and  wicked  !  I  pray  Heaven  to  deliver  you 
from  being  an  abolitionist  in  the  cast  of  your  mind,  your 
temper,  and  spirit.  Nothing  gives  me  such  an  idea  of 
the  world  of  despair  as  when  I  read  ultra  anti-slavery 
speeches.  I  see  how  the  lost  will  hate  God's  mysterious 
providence,  and  revile  it ;  and  how  they  will  fight  with 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  89 

each  other,  and  pour  out  their  furious  invective  and  sar 
casm  and  vituperation,  and  scourge  one  another  with  their 
fiery  tongues,  as  they  now  do,  when  some  one  of  the  party 
appears  to  falter.  If  there  were  not  something  truly  good 
in  connection  with  slavery  amid  all  its  evils,'!  think  such 
men  would  not  oppose  it. 

Pray,  who  are  these  gentlemen,  and  who  are  their  ex 
tremely  zealous  anti-slavery  friends  of  more  respectable 
standing,  that  they  should  have  such  immense  instalments 
of  sympathy  and  pity  for  the  "  poor  slave "  ?  Their 
neighbors  are  as  susceptible  as  they  to  every  form  of  hu 
man  sorrow  ;  they  know  as  much,  their  judgments  are  as 
sound,  their  motives  are  as  good  as  theirs.  Had  these 
zealous  people  made  new  discoveries,  or,  were  the  subject 
of  slavery  new,  we  might  give  them  credit  for  being  on 
the  hill-tops,  while  we  were  in  the  vales.  This  pas 
sionate  sympathy,  on  the  part  of  some,  for  "  the  down 
trodden,"  as  they  call  the  negroes,  is  not  like  zeal  for  a 
theological,  or  a  political,  or  a  scientific,  doctrine,  which 
would  justify  its  adherents  in  rebuking  the  error  and  in 
difference  of  others  ;  for  if  slavery  be  as  they  represent 
it,  the  proofs  of  it  must  be  as  self-evident  as  starvation. 
What  if  a  class  of  men  among  us  should  rage  against 
those  who  do  not  contribute  largely  to  the  Syrian  suffer 
ers,  as  the  zealous  anti-slavery  people  reproach  and  even 
revile  those  who  do  not  see  slavery  with  their  eyes  ?  We 
should  then  say,  "  Friends,  who  are  you,  that  you  should 
claim  to  have  all  the  virtuous  sensibility  ?  " 

But  more  than  this,  —  I  doubt,  I  venture  to  deny,  and 
that  on  philosophical  grounds,  the  true  philanthropy  of 
these  people.  For  true  love  and  kindness  always  create 
something  of  their  own  kind  where  they  have  full  power. 
Are  there  any  words  or  acts  of  love,  kindness,  gentleness, 


90  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

mercy,  toward  others,  in  the  speeches  and  doings  of  the 
zealous  anti-slavery  people  ? 

I  wish  that  you  had  been  with  me,  one  evening,  in  a 
corner  of  the  Methodist  meeting-house,  where  I  sat  and 
enjoyed  the  slaves'  prayer-meeting.  I  had  been  filled 
with  distress  that  day  by  reading,  in  Northern  papers,  the 
doings  and  speeches  at  excited  meetings  called  to  sympa 
thize  with  servile  insurrection.  In  this  prayer-meeting 
the  slaves  rose  one  after  another,  went  in  front,  and  re 
peated  each  a  hymn,  then  resumed  their  seats,  while  some 
one,  moved  by  the  sentiments  of  the  hymn,  would  lead  in 
prayer.  A  white  gentleman  presided,  according  to  cus 
tom,  and  I  was  the  only  other  white  person  present.  Go 
ing  to  that  meeting  with  the  impressions  upon  my  heart 
of  the  terrible  excitements  which  you  were  witnessing  at 
home,  and  saying  to  myself,  "  O  my  soul,  thou  hast 
heard  the  sound  of  the  trumpet  and  the  alarm  of  war  !  " 
you  cannot  imagine  what  my  feelings  were  when  the  larg 
est  negro  that  I  ever  saw  rose  and  stood  before  the  desk, 
and  repeated  the  following  hymn  by  Rev.  Charles  Wes 
ley.  The  first  lines,  you  may  well  suppose,  startled  me, 
and  made  me  think  that  the  insurrection  had  reached  even 
here. 

"  Equip  me  for  the  war, 

And  teach  my  hands  to  fight; 
My  simple,  upright  heart  prepare, 

And  guide  my  words  aright. 

u  Control  my  every  thought, 

My  whole  of  sin  remove ; 
Let  all  my  works  in  thee  be  wrought, 

Let  all  be  wrought  in  love. 

"  Oh,  arm  me  with  the  mind, 

Meek  Lamb !  that  was  in  thee; 
And  let  my  knowing  zeal  be  join'd 
With  perfect  charity. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  91 

"  With  calm  and  temper'd  mind 

Let  me  enforce  thy  call ; 
And  vindicate  thy  gracious  will, 

Which  offers  life  to  all. 

"  Oh,  may  I  love  like  thee, 

In  all  thy  footsteps  tread; 
Thou  hatest  all  iniquity, 

But  nothing  thou  hast  made. 

"  Oh,  may  I  learn  the  art, 

With  meekness  to  reprove ; 
To  hate  the  sin  with  all  my  heart, 

But  still  the  sinner  love." 

You  must  read  this  hymn  to  "  Isaiah,"  and  tell  him 
about  the  prayer-meeting.  While  the  "friends  of  the 
slave,"  as  you  call  them,  are  holding  such  humiliating 
meetings  as  you  describe,  in  behalf  of  the  slaves,  and  are 
vexing  themselves  and  chafing  under  the  imagination  of 
their  unmitigated  sorrows  and  "  oppression,"  the  slaves 
themselves,  all  over  the  South,  are  holding  prayer-meet 
ings,  and  are  blessing  God  that  they  are  "  raised  'way  up 
to  heaven's  gate  in  privilege."  As  I  sat  in  that  prayer- 
meeting  I  could  almost  have  risen  and  asked  the  prayers 
of  the  slaves  in  behalf  of  many  at  the  North  who  are 
making  themselves  and  others  nearly  insane  on  their  be 
half.  But  I  thought  of  my  former  ignorance  and  preju 
dice,  and  said,  "And  such  were  some  of  you."  , 

I  will  tell  you  some  of  the  little  incidents  which  meet 
one  every  day,  and  which  give  you  impressions  respect 
ing  the  relations  between  the  whites  and  blacks,  full  as 
instructive  as  those  received  in  any  other  way. 

Crossing  a  public  street,  which  is  steep,  in  the  city  of 

,  a  truckle-cart  came  by  me  at  great  speed,  drawn 

by  a  white  boy,  with  another  white  boy  pushing,  and 
seated  in  it,  erect  and  laughing,  was  a  fine-looking  black 


92  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

boy  of  about  the  same  age  as  his  white  playmates. 
Around  the  corner  of  another  street  there  came  by  me, 
with  a  skip-and-jump  step,  two  white  girls,  about  thirteen 
years  old,  and  between  them  —  the  arms  of  the  three  all 
intertwined  —  was  another  girl  of  the  same  age,  as  black 
as  ebony.  On  they  went  jumping,  and  keeping  step,  and 
singing. 

I  had  not  been  accustomed  to  such  sights  in  Beacon 
Street,  on  my  visits  to  Boston.  "  Friends  of  the 
slave,"  as  we  most  surely  are,  and  some  of  us  being 
decorated  with  that  name  by  way  of  distinction,  signifi 
cant  of  our  all-absorbing  business  "to  raise  the  black 
man  at  the  South  to  the  condition  of  a  human  being," 
when  we  get  them  there  we  are  not  greeted  in  the  streets 
with  pictures  of  white  and  black  children  on  such  terms 
as  appeared  in  these  two  casual  incidents.  Nothing  at 
first  struck  me  with  greater  \vonder  at  the  South  than  to 
see  the  most  fashionably  dressed  ladies  in  the  most  public 
streets  stop  to  help  a  black  woman  with  a  burden  on  her 
head,  if  she  needed  assistance,  or  to  hold  a  gate  open  for 
a  man  with  a  wheelbarrow. 

One  white  boy  cried  to  another  across  a  street,  "  Come 
along,  it's  most  time  to  be  in  school."  The  other  an 
swered,  in  a  petulant  tone,  "  I  a'n't  going  to  school." 
A  tall,  white-headed  negro  was  passing  ;  his  black  sur- 
tout  nearly  touched  the  ground ;  he  had  on  his  arm  a 
very  nice  market-basket,  covered  with  a  snow-white  nap 
kin,  and  in  his  right  hand  a  long  cane.  Hearing  what 
the  last  boy  said,  he  came  to  a  full  stand,  put  down 
his  basket,  clasped  his  long  cane  with  both  hands,  and 
brought  it  down  on  the  brick  sidewalk  with  three  quick 
raps,  and  then  a  rap  at  each  of  these  points  of  admira 
tion  :  "  What !  what !  what !  "  said  he,  drawing  himself 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  93 

up  to  express  surprise,  and  calling  out  with  magisterial 
voice ;  "  Go  to  school !  my  son !  go  to  school !  and 
larn !  a  heap  ! "  the  cane  making  emphasis  at  every 
expression.  The  white  boy  retreated  under  the  impres 
sion  of  a  well-deserved,  though  kind,  rebuke.  He  did 
not  call  the  old  man  "  nigger,"  nor  in  any  way  insult 
him. 

But  here  is  an  incident  of  a  different  kind. 

Standing  to  talk  with  a  man  who  had  charge  of  my 
baggage,  in  the  passage-way  between  the  baggage-room 
and  the  colored  passengers'  apartment.  I  saw  a  white 
man  with  a  pert,  flurried  manner  and  coarse  look  ascend 
the  steps  of  the  cars,  and  behind  him  a  tall  graceful 
black  man,  a  little  older  than  the  other,  with  signs  of 
gentleness  and  dignity  in  his  appearance.  As  he  stooped 
and  turned,  his  air  and  carriage  would  have  commanded 
attention  anywhere.  The  white  man,  seeing  him  enter 
the  wrong  door,  cried  out  to  him  with  an  impudent  voice, 
ordered  him  back,  pointed  him  to  the  proper  room,  and 
told  him  to  go  in  there  and  make  himself  "  oneasy,"  with 
a  laugh  at  his  own  attempt  at  inaccurate  talk  as  he  cast 
a  glance  at  some  white  men  standing  by.  The  black  man 
was  his  slave.  The  natural  and  proper  order  of  things 
was  reversed  in  their  relation  to  each  other. 

I  looked  at  the  black  man  as  he  took  his  seat,  and, 
without  being  observed,  I  kept  my  eye  on  his  face.  He 
cast  his  eye  out  of  the  window,  as  though  to  relieve  a 
struggle  of  emotions,  but  a  calm  expression  settled  down 
upon  his  features. 

A  Southern  gentleman,  a  slave-holder,  witnessing  the 
scene  with  me,  said,  — 

"  Disgusting !  There,  madam,  you  have  one  of  the 
great  evils  of  slavery,  —  irresponsible  power  in  the  hands 


94  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

of  men  who  are  not  fit  to  be  intrusted  with  authority  over 
others.  No  man,  I  sometimes  think,  ought  to  be  allowed 
to  hold  slaves  till  he  has  submitted  to  examination  as  to 
character,  or  brings  certificates  of  a  good  disposition.  I 
know  that  man.  His  father  was  from [a  New  Eng 
land  State.]  He  is  what  we  call  a  torn-down  character. 
His  neighbors  all " but  the  signal  was  given  for  start 
ing,  and  the  conversation  was  broken  off. 

My  first  thought  was,  How  glad  I  would  be  to  set  that 
man  free  from  such  bondage !  The  next  thought  was, 
Where  would  I  send  him  to  be  free  from  "  the  power  of 
the  dog  ?  "  I  had  been  reading,  in  a  Boston  paper,  a  lec 
ture  delivered  in  Boston,  by  a  distinguished' "  friend  of  the 
slave,"  against  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  Choate,  before  an 
"  immense  audience."  I  thought,  How  much  better  it  is 
to  be  a  Christian  slave,  even  to  this  master,  than  to  sit  in 
the  seat  of  the  scornful,  applauding  such  a  lecture  ! 

The  poor  slave  was  having  his  probation  and  disci 
pline,  as  we  all  have  ours,  and  he  was  suffering,  as  we  all 
do  in  our  turns,  from  an  impudent  tongue.  Little  did  he 
think  that  a  fellow-creature,  looking  at  him  at  that  mo 
ment,  was  reminded,  by  his  meekness  under  insult,  of 
Him,  our  example,  who,  under  such  provocation,  opened 
not  his  mouth,  and  that  I  was  made  to  remember,  as  I 
stood  there  and  received  instruction'  from  him,  that  the 
best  alleviation  and  cure  of  anguished  sensibility  under 
ill-treatment  is  in  this  same  silence,  and  in  thoughts  of 
Jesus. 

After  the  cars  had  started,  I  took  my  Bible  from  my 
carpet-bag,  and  read  these  passages  :  "  Servants,  be  sub 
ject  to  your  masters  with  all  fear ;  not  only  to  the  good 
and  gentle,  but  also  to  the  froward.  For  this  is  thank 
worthy,  if  a  man  for  conscience  toward  God  endure 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  95 

grief,  suffering  wrongfully."  Then  this  is  enforced  by 
the  example  of  our  incarnate  God  and  Saviour,  who  is 
held  up  to  Christian  slaves  as  their  example ;  and  in  this 
connection,  not  only  in  this  passage,  but  elsewhere  in 
speaking  to  slaves,  the  Apostle  brings  in  the  most  sub 
lime  truths  relating  to  redemption.  You  will  be  struck 
with  this  in  reading  what  is  said  to  slaves,  that  in  several 
cases,  the  train  of  thought  proceeds  directly  from  their 
condition  and  its  duties,  to  the  most  sublime  and  beautiful 
truths  of  salvation.  How  divinely  wise  did  these  ex 
hortations  to  slaves  appear  to  me,  that  morning,  in  contrast 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Northern  abolitionist,  and  his  talk 
about  "  Bunker  Hill,"  "'7 6,"  and  his  "grandfather's  old 
gun  over  the  mantel-piece,"  and  his  injunctions  to  slaves  as 
to  the  duty  of  stealing,  and  even  murdering,  if  necessary, 
to  effect  their  liberty.  This  is  not  the  spirit  of  the  New 
Testament.  The  idea  of  submission  on  the  part  of 
"  servants  "  to  "  masters,"  of  "  pleasing  them  well  in  all 
things,"  of  "  fear  and  trembling,"  "  not  purloining  but  show 
ing  good  fidelity  in  all  things,"  is  not  found  in  the  Gospel 
of  the  abolitionist.  He  complains  that  we  do  not  send 
the  true  Gospel  to  the  South.  There  are  passages  in  the 
Epistles  addressed  to  slaves,  which,  if  faithfully  regarded, 
would  make  fugitive  slave  laws  for  the  most  part  need 
less.  No  wonder  that  the  New  Testament,  with  its  ex 
hortations  to  meekness  and  patience  under  suffering,  and 
the  duty  of  those  who  are  "  under  the  yoke,"  and  of 
masters  as  being  "  worthy  of  honor,"  and  the  caution 
that  the  slave  do  not  take  undue  liberty  where  his  master 
is  a  believer,  nor  assert  the  doctrine  of  equality  in  Christ 
as  a  ground  for  undue  familiarity,  or  disobedience,  is 
repudiated  by  the  vengeful  spirit  of  the  abolitionist. 
How  well  the  Apostle  understood  him  !  "  If  any  man 


96  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

teach  otherwise,"  that  is,  contrary  to  these  injunctions 
as  to  the  duty  of  slaves  who  have  believing  masters,  "  he 
is  proud,  (that  is  the  leading  feature  of  his  error)  he 
is  proud,  knowing  nothing,  but  doting  about  questions  and 
strifes  of  words,  whereof  cometh  envy,  strife,  railings,  evil 
surmisings."  What  an  anomaly  it  would  be  to  have  an 
abolition  convention  opened  with  reading  a  collect  of 
Paul's  inspired  directions  to  masters  and  slaves. 

But  we  never  hear  anything  quoted  from  the  Bible  cm 
the  subject  but  "  break  every  yoke  ! "  "  let  the  oppressed 
go  free  !  "  "  undo  the  heavy  burdens  ! "  I  was  telling  a 
slave-holder  of  the  frequency  with  which  we  hear  these 
expressions  in  public  prayer.  "  I  could  join  in  every 
one  of  them,"  said  he  ;  "  I  am  for  breaking  every  yoke, 
South  and  North,  unbinding  every  heavy  burden,  and 
destroying  every  form  of  oppression.  But  they  must 
be  actual,  not  theoretical,  nor  imaginary." 

This  gentle  slave  in  the  cars,  we  will  suppose,  refuses 
opportunities  to  escape,  but  complies  with  the  exhorta 
tions  of  the  New  Testament,  "  enduring  grief,  suffer 
ing  wrongfully."  His  master  is  at  last  touched  by  his 
meekness,  his  "  not  answering  again."  I  should  relate 
only  that  which  I  know  to  have  happened,  should  I  say, 
that  one  day  this  master  is  filled  with  distress  on  account 
of  sin.  He  goes  out  into  the  cotton-field  and  finds 
Jacob. 

"  Jacob,"  he  says,  "  I  am  a  great  sinner.  Jacob,  I  feel 
that  I  am  sinking  into  hell.  Jacob,  pray  for  me.  I  mean 
to  turn  about,  if  I  live." 

u  Dat's  jest  what  I've  sought  de  Lord  for,  massa,  dis 
six  months  coming  New  Year.  Let's  go  up  into  de  loft ; 
it's  whar  I've  wrastled  for  you  in  prayer." 

He  leads  the  way.      The  floor  of  the  loft  is  covered 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  97 

with  cotton-seed.  A  wheelbarrow  is  in  the  middle  of 
the  floor.  Jacob  takes  off  his  jacket,  and  with  it  brushes 
the  cotton-seed  away  from  one  side  of  the  wheelbarrow, 
lays  the  jacket  down  for  his  master  to  kneel  upon,  and 
goes  to  the  other  side.  Like  Jacob  at  Peniel,  he  has 
power  over  the  angel,  and  prevails ;  he  weeps  and  makes 
supplication  unto  him.  The  master  breaks  out  in  prayer. 
He  rises  and  says,  — 

"  Jacob,  forgive  me  if  I've  been  unkind  to  you ;  I've 
seen  that  you  are  a  Christian ;  now  if  you  want  to  leave 
me  for  anybody  else,  say  so." 

"  Thank  you,  massa  ;  only  sarve  de  Lord  with  gladness 
for  all  de  good  things  he  has  done  for  you,  and  I'll  sarve 
you  de  same.  Please  go  home  and  tell  missis  ;  she  told 
me  to  pray  for  you  ;  'twill  finish  up  her  joy." 

This  is  better  than  running  away  and  going  to  Canada. 
Those  Christians  who  send  the  Gospel  to  the  South  by  mis 
sionaries  and  religious  tracts,  to  promote  such  scenes  as  this, 
do  a  better  work  than  though  they  withheld  missionaries 
and  tracts  from  one  half  of  the  nation,  and  called  it 
"  Standing  up  for  Jesus." 

I  am  sometimes  inclined  to  put  down  all  that  I  see  and 
hear,  good  and  bad,  and  publish  a  book  to  satisfy  my 
truly  candid  but  mistaken  friends  at  the  North  as  to  the 
real  truth  on  this  subject.  But  I  have  in  mind  the  way 
in  which  similar  works  have  already  been  received  and 
treated  by  an  unreasoning,  passionate  North.  I  have 
amused  myself  sometimes  in  imagining  what  certain  writ 
ers  would  say  to  some  of  the  incidents  which  I  have  relat 
ed  in  this  letter.  Let  me  attempt  to  show  you  the  spirit 
and  manner  of  our  Northern  reviewers  when  one  ven 
tures  to  state  favorable  things  relating  to  slavery.  I  will 
take  some  of  the  incidents  already  related  in  this  letter 


98  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

and  let  these  men  review  them.  I  am  perfectly  familiar 
with  their  style,  from  having  been  employed  in  helping 
your  uncle  prepare  the  notices  of  new  publications  for 

the  " Review."     Here,  then,  I  will  give  you  first  a 

supposed  notice  of  my  little  book,  should  I  make  one,  from 
a  Northern  religious  newspaper,  quoting,  in  all  cases,  the 
identical  expressions  from  articles  which  I  have  read  :  — 
" '  The  authoress,  it  seems,  is  yet  in  her  Paradise  of 
slavery.'  Her  i  opulent  friends '  and  the  slave-holders  gen 
erally,  it  would  appear,  got  up  little  tableaux  for  her,  to 
impose  on  her  good-nature.  Knowing  the  times  when 
she  took  her  daily  walks,  they  put  the  fattest  and  sleekest 
black  boy  whom  they  could  find,  into  a  truckle-cart,  and 
made  two  of  the  sons  of  the  *  most  opulent '  citizens  race 
down  hill  with  him.  Slavery,  therefore,  is  not  the  bad 
thing  she  and  we  had  supposed.  The  female  teacher  of 
a  school  in  the  neighborhood  of  her  daily  walk  was 
suborned,  most  probably,  by  the  '  opulent '  ladies  of  the 
place,  to  practise  another  pleasing  trick.  Two  white 
girls  and  a  black  girl  were  made  to  practise  running  with 
their  arms  interlocked,  and  one  day,  as  our  friend  came 
in  sight,  they  were  pushed  out  to  astonish  her  with  one 
instance  of  white  girls  hugging  a  negro  slave-child.  No 
doubt  our  friend,  on  seeing  these  three  together,  solilo 
quized  as  follows :  — 

"  See  Truth,  Love,  and  Mercy  in  triumph  descending, 
All  nature  now  glowing  in  Eden's  first  bloom." 

The  old  negro,  respectable  and  well  off,  was  one  of  those 
rare  exceptions  to  surrounding  degradation  which  you  now 
and  then  see  in  Southern  cities.  The  poor  slave  in  the 
cars,  gentle,  timid,  quivering,  was  the  true  exponent  ot 
slavery.  Had  our  authoress  filled  her  book  with  such 
illustrations  exclusively,  she  would  have  written  more 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  99 

truthfully,  more  for  her  reputation  with  the  real  *  friends 
of  the  slave,'  and,  we  confess,  more  in  accordance  with 
our  taste." 

A  writer  in  a  very  respectable  publication  at  the 
North,  already  referred  to,  gave  us  several  years  ago 
a  curious  piece  of  criticism  on  some  publication  which 
he  regarded  as  too  favorable  to  slavery.  His  pages,  some 
of  them,  were  crowded  with  daggers,  in  the  shape  of  ex 
clamation  marks,  —  two,  three,  four,  and,  in  one  instance, 
five,  at  the  end  of  quotations  from  the  book  under  review. 
It  was  he  that  made  the  assertion  about  the  "  arsenic,"  as 
being  "  universally  in  the  hands  of  the  slaves." 

I  shall  now  let  him  review  my  little  stories.  I  quote 
many  of  his  words  :  — 

"  '  To  show  the  ignorance  and  simplicity  of  our  travel 
ling  '  lady,  we  give  the  following, —  and  what  will  the  North 
say  to  this  new  argument  in  favor  of  slavery  ?  namely, 
a  truckle-cart !  a  black  boy  riding  ! !  two  white  boys  giv 
ing  him  a  ride ! ! !  and  three  girls,  one  of  them  black  !  arm 
in  arm ! !  romping.  '  It  is  not  the  fault  of  this  writer, 
that  she  cannot  understand  a  principle  ; '  <  she  is  a  New 
England  Orthodox,'  —  *  and  a  fair  specimen  of  the  limita 
tions  of  that  type  of  mankind/  '  But  does  not  the  lady 
know,'  why  negro  boys  are  put  in  truckle-carts  ?  *  If  not, 
any  of  her  Southern  friends  could  have  told  her.'  We 
can  tell  her;  'we  have  lived  at  the  South.'  These 
white  boys  were  sent  on  an  errand  with  their  cart,  and 
to  increase  its  momentum  down  hill,  and,  withal,  to  tease 
and  worry  a  fellow-creature,  with  a  skin  not  colored  like 
their  own,  they  made  this  poor  slave-boy  get  in.  She 
should  have  seen  the  poor  creature  trudging  home,  up 
hill,  under  a  Southern  sun,  after  the  little  white  tyrants 
had  done  with  him,  unless  it  was  the  case,  which  we  more 


100  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

than  half  suspect,  that  the  ride  was  a  stratagem  to  convey 
the  poor  child  to  the  auction-block.  l  How  the  merry 
dogs,'  the  white  boys,  must  have  laughed  at  this  North 
ern  lady's  complacent  looks  at  them.  She  had  no  tears 
for  the  poor  old  white-headed  negro,  who,  hearing  the 
word  '  school '  from  the  lips  of  his  white  young  masters, 
had  such  a  rush  of  sorrow  come  over  his  soul  at  the 
thought  of  the  midnight  ignorance  in  which  the  slave- 
driver's  whip  had  kept  him,  that  he  actually  dropped  his 
burden  in  the  public  street,  and  uttered  incautious  words, 
for  which,  no  doubt,  old  as  he  was,  he  caught  a  terrible 
flogging.  Why,  in  the  name  of  humanity,  did  not  the 
authoress  load  her  pages,  as  she  might  so  easily  have 
done,  with  scenes  like  that  in  the  cars?  There  is 
slavery  !  patent !  undisguised  ! !  In  the  other  cases  it 
is  slavery,  indeed,  but  covered  with  the  pro-slavery 
lady's  snow-white  napkin." 

Here  is  a  review  of  me  and  of  my  little  stories,  by  a 
distinguished  New  England  divine,  and  author.  He  has 
written  much  on  slavery.  Having  prepared  notices  of 
some  of  his  writings  on  this  subject,  I  am  familiar  with 
his  turns  of  thought  and  modes  of  expression.  I  have 
great  regard  for  him,  and  always  read  him  with  pleasure 
and  profit,  not  excepting  when  he  writes  as  follows,  in 
doing  which  he  has  the  approbation  of  large  numbers 
among  the  Northern  clergy  of  all  denominations,  except 
the  Episcopalians,  —  who,  more  than  other  Northern 
ministers,  are  remarkably  free  from  ultraisms. 

"  Concerning  the  truckle-cart,  *  we  would  say  this,' 
that  unquestionably  '  the  moral  power '  of  the  incident 
was  all  which  the  writer  assumes,  but  its  '  logical  se 
quences  '  *  we  utterly  deny.'  Slavery  is  evil,  and  only 
evil,  and  that  continually ;  now,  to  infer  that  agreeable 


THE  SABfiE  Gl.Ol'D.  \\    'ibt 

relations  can  subsist  between  the  children  of  masters  and 
the  children  of  slaves  under  the  '  immense,  malignant, 
and  all-pervading  influence  of  slavery,'  abhorred  of 
Heaven  and  all  good  men,  does  violence  to  all  sound 
principles  of  reasoning,  and  is  at  war  wjth  ' the  mani 
fest  rules  of  Providence/ 

"  And  as  to  the  three  girls  *  we  are  prepared  to  say ' 
that  the  author  '  did  not  look  deep  enough '  into  the  philos 
ophy  of  human  motives  under  the  controlling  power  of 
slavery.  For  slavery  makes  men  improvident,  and  their 
children  also ;  (see  '  Judge  Jay,'  '  Weld  on  Slavery,'  etc.) 
These  white  girls,  therefore,  probably  had  no  money  in 
their  pockets  ;  it  was  the  time  of  recess  ;  they  were  hungry ; 
the  black  child  we  presume  had  money  in  her  pocket,  for 
by  the  authoress's  own  showing  (in  the  story  of  a  slave 
changing  a  gold  piece  for  the  landlord),  slaves  may  have 
money  of  their  own.  Had  our  authoress  followed  her  trio 
down  to  the  confectioner's,  there  she  might  have  seen 
these  white  children  cajoling  the  poor  black,  and  making 
her  treat  them ;  in  preparation  for  which  they  affected  to 
put  their  arms  around  her ;  but,  in  the  true  diabolical 
spirit  of  slavery,  it  was  only  to  devour. 

"  We  have  no  space  to  enter  philosophically  into  the 
instruction  afforded  us  by  the  old  negro  and  the  school 
boys  ;  but  there  is  deep  meaning  in  it,  which  the  true 
friends  of  the  slave,  who  may  read  it,  will  do  well  to 
ponder.  The  old  negro  is  the  prophetic  representation 
of  his  down-trodden  race,  crying  with  bewildered  accents, 
he  heeds  not  where,  '  Go  to  school !  boys  ;  go  to  school ! ' 
Let  a  united  North  echo  back  his  words,  suiting  their 
political  action  to  them,  and  saying  to  the  colored  chil 
dren,  with  an  authority  which  shall  shake  the  very  pillars 
of  the  Union, '  Go  to  school,  boys  !  go  to  school ! ' 


CLOUD. 

"  Nor  can  we,  for  the  tears  which  dim  our  sight,  speak 
as  we  would  of  the  wretched  master  and  his  amiable 
slave  in  the  cars.  The  sketch  reminded  us  of  the  best  in 
'  Uncle  Tom.'  We  need  books  filled  with  such  pictures,  to 
electrify  the  slumbering  sensibilities  of  the  North.  Wan 
ton  candor  in  speaking  of  slavery,  is  the  most  unpardon 
able  of  sins.  There  is  a  time  to  tell  the  whole  truth  ;  but 
the  wise  man  says,  There  is  '  a  time  to  keep  silence.'  " 

I  did  not  pretend,  Gentlemen  Reviewers,  that  my  little, 
pleasing  incidents  were  arguments  in  favor  of  slavery ; 
you  should  not  have  been  so  alarmed ;  you  are  really 
rude ;  I  almost  feel  disposed  to  say  to  you,  for  each  of 
my  tales,  as  the  Rosemary  said  to  the  Wild  Boar,  -— 

"  Sus,  apage !  baud  tibi  spiro ;  " 

which,  not  having  a  poetical  friend  near  to  translate  for 
me,  I  venture  to  render  as  follows :  — 

"  Thus  to  the  Boar  replied  the  Rosemary: 
O  swine,  depart !  I  do  not  breathe  for  thee." 

In  noticing  the  manner  in  which  many  Northern 
writers,  some  of  them  amiable  men,  receive  the  candid 
views  and  statements  of  travellers  and  visitors  at  the 
South,  I  have  been  made  to  think  of  a  company  of 
the  owls,  such  as  you  see  in  Audubon,  listening  to  the 
reading  of  David's  one  hundred  and  fourth  Psalm,  in 
which  he  describes  nature.  Not  a  smile  of  satisfaction  ; 
on  the  contrary,  if  you 

"Molest  the  ancient,  solitary  reign  " 

of  prejudice  in  their  minds  against  the  South,  they  either 
mope,  or  make  a  sad  noise.  With  regard  to  others,  are 
there  any  limits  to  their  anger  and  denunciations  ?  You 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  103 

may,  without  difficulty,  imagine  how  this  appears  to  the 
Southerner,  who  knows  the  truthfulness  of  the  represen 
tations  which  excite  this  passionate  resentment,  and  how 
much  the  character  of  the  North  for  ordinary  candor 
falls  in  his  esteem,  and  how  little  disposed  he  is  to  heed 
their  admonitions,  and  how  absurd  their  demands  upon 
his  ecclesiastical  bodies  to  suffer  their  remonstrances, 
appear,  together  with  their  subsequent  withdrawal  of 
fellowship  for  the  reason  publicly  assigned  ;  namely,  that 
the  South  will  not  let  them  admonish  her  "  in  the  Lord." 
Indeed,  whatever  may  be  true  of  slavery,  the  South 
looks  on  the  great  body  of  zealous  anti-slavery  people  as 
being  in  as  false  and  unnatural  a  state  of  excitement  as 
the  Massachusetts  people  were  in  the  times  of  witchcraft. 
A  great  delusion  is  over  the  minds  of  many  at  the  North, 
like  one  of  our  eastern  sea-fogs.  It  always  makes  a 
Southerner  merry,  when  listening,  in  New  York  or  Bos 
ton,  for  example,  to  a  lecture,  if  the  speaker  concludes  a 
sentence  with  some  allusion  to  "  freedom,"  and  the  people 
clap  and  stamp.  That  the  blood  should  tingle  in  our 
veins  at  so  slight  a  cause,  makes  him  think  that  we  are 
certainly  in  need  of  something  worthy  of  our  great  ex 
citability,  and  that  we  are  thankful  for  small  favors  in 
that  way.  He  does  not  think  less  than  we  of  liberty 
where  an  occasion  makes  that  name  and  idea  appropri 
ate  ;  but  that  the  condition  of  his  slaves  should  reconse 
crate  for  us  all  the  old  battle-cries  of  freedom,  seems 
to  him  pitiably  weak.  It  shows  him  how  incompetent 
we  are  to  deal  with  the  acknowledged  evils  of  slavery ; 
and  there  are  those  at  the  South  who  are  stirred  up  by 
us  to  take  extreme  views  of  an  opposite  kind,  which  good 
people  there  very  generally  deplore. 

A  Southern  lady  here  tells  me  that  some  time  since, 


104  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

being  on  a  visit  at  the  North,  she  received  through  the 
post-office  anonymous  letters  with  extracts  from  news 
papers  containing  little  items  of  woe,  declared  to  have 
been  experienced  at  the  South,  with  here  and  there  de 
lirious  abuse  of  slave-holders  and  frenzied  words  about 
freedom.  She  could  have  matched  every  one  of  them, 
she  said,  with  wife-murders  at  the  North,  during  her  visit. 
In  dealing  with  people  like  the  slaves,  of  course  men  of 
brutal  passions,  provoked  by  their  stupidity  and  negli 
gence,  or  exasperated  by  their  crimes,  and,  in  cases  of 
ungovernable  anger,  venting  their  displeasure  upon  their 
negroes  under  slight  or  merely  imaginary  affronts,  give 
occasion  to  tales  of  distress  which  are  nowhere  mourned 
over  more  deeply  than  at  the  South.  These  cases  are 
the  natural  results  of  a  superior  and  inferior  class  of 
society,  standing  in  the  relation,  the  one  to  the  other,  of 
proprietor  and  dependant,  and  such  evils  are  not  peculiar 
to  this  institution.  Human  nature  is  the  same  every 
where.  The  South  is  willing  to  have  the  abuses  of  irre 
sponsible  power  among  them  compared  with  abuses,  dis 
comforts,  disadvantages  elsewhere.  Grant  that  an  owner 
may  abuse  his  liberty  ;  ownership  leads  to  more,  of  care 
and  protection  than  of  abuse  and  cruelty.  The  slaves 
are  here ;  the  question  is  not,  What  would  be  the  best 
possible  condition  for  these  people  under  the  sun,  but, 
What  is  best  for  them,  being  on  this  soil.  "  Set  them  all 
free,"  is  the  answer  of  some.  Half  the  ministers  at  the 
North  every  Sabbath  pray  for  the  slaves  thus  :  "  Break 
every  yoke  ;  let  the  oppressed  go  free."  If  this  means, 
Give  the  slaves  their  liberty,  this  would  be  their  most 
direful  calamity ;  they  would  be  chased  away  from  every 
free  state,  in  process  of  time,  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
would  be  invoked,  even  in  Massachusetts,  by  its  present 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  105 

most  bitter  opposers,  and  in  its  most  misrepresented 
forms,  as  a  defence  of  the  American  white  race  against 
the  blacks.  "  Set  them  free  and  hire  them  !  "  is  the  re 
ply  of  others.  This,  among  other  effects,  would  make 
them  a  far  more  degraded  people  than  they  now  are. 
Slavery  keeps  them  identified  with  the  whites  ;  they  are 
more  respectable  and  respected  by  far,  in  this  relation, 
than  they  can  be,  in  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  if 
they  are  detached  from  the  whites.  There  is  no  ex 
pression  which  conveys  a  more  absolute  error  than  this, 
and  we  often  meet  with  it :  "  He  ceased  to  be  a  slave, 
and  became  a  man."  I  read  lately  the  report  of  a  lecture 
at  the  North,  by  an  eminent  gentleman,  of  great  moral 
worth,  and  highly  respected.  He  said,  "  A  man  cannot 
be,  voluntarily,  a  slave,  without  having  his  manhood 
crushed  out  of  him."  That  might  be  true  in  our  case  ; 
but  having  seen  manhood  forced  into  benighted  natures 
here,  and  splendid  specimens  of  man  as  the  result,  I 
was,  by  this  remark,  reminded  again  of  the  delusiveness 
which  there  is  sometimes  in  the  best  of  logic.  You  gave 
us  a  good  specimen  in  your  admirable  illustration  of  no 
water  in  the  moon.  A  comparison  of  the  slaves  with 
the  free  negroes  of  the  North,  and  in  Canada,  and  with 
the  free  colored  population  in  some  of  the  Slave  States, 
will  satisfy  any  impartial  spectator  that  manhood  is  full 
as  conspicuous  in  the  slaves,  as  a  body,  as  in  the  free 
negroes. 

Here  are  two  extracts  from  Northern  papers,  which, 
true  or  false,  awaken  compassion  in  every  human  bosom 
toward  the  free  colored  people.  Indeed,  allowing  these 
statements,  so  unfavorable  to  them,  to  be  mostly  false, 
it  reveals  the  antipathy  of  the  white  to  the  colored  race 
when  the  blacks  come  to  seek  equality  with  the  whites. 
5* 


106  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

Let  these  free  blacks  be  mixed  up  in  large  proportions 
with  society  in  England  and  Scotland,  and  if  Canadians 
feel  as  they  are  here  represented,  we  may  be  sure  that 
the  present  tone  of  the  British  people  with  regard  to 
American  slavery  and  the  blacks,  would  also  be  modi 
fied.  But  here  are  the  extracts  :  — 

"  GETTING  SICK  OF  THEM.  —  The  colored  persons  of 
Toronto,  having  had  a  meeting  to  denounce  Colonel  John 
Prince,  a  member  of  the  Canadian  Parliament,  for  speaking 
against  them,  he  publishes  a  reply,  in  which  he  says, — 

"  '  It  has  been  my  misfortune,  and  the  misfortune  of  my 
family,  to  live  among  those  blacks  (and  they  have  lived  upon 
us)  for  twenty-four  years.  I  have  employed  hundreds  of  them, 
and  with  the  exception  of  one,  named  Richard  Hunter,  not 
one  of  them  has  done  for  us  a  week's  honest  labor.  I  have 
taken  them  into  my  service,  fed  and  clothed  them,  year  after 
year,  on  their  arrival  from  the  States,  and  in  return  have  gen 
erally  found  them  rogues  and  thieves,  and  a  graceless,  worth 
less,  thriftless  set  of  vagabonds.  This  is  my  very  plain  and 
simple  description  of  the  darkies  as  a  body,  and  it  would  be 
indorsed  by  all  the  Western  white  men,  with  very  few  excep 
tions.'  " 

"  UNDERGROUND  R.  R.  RETURN  TRAINS.  —  The  '  Cleve 
land  Plaindealer '  states  that  every  steamboat  arriving  at  that 
place  brings  back  from  Canada  families  of  negroes,  who  hare 
formerly  fled  to  the  Provinces  from  the  States.  They  are  prin 
cipally  from  Canada  West.  They  describe  the  life  and  con 
dition  of  the  blacks  in  Canada  as  miserable  in  the  extreme. 
The  West  is,  therefore,  likely  to  have  large  accessions  to  its 
colored  population.  The  Canada  folks  do  not  want  them,  and 
have  shown  a  disposition  in  their  Parliament,  and  otherwise,  to 
discourage  their  coming  to,  or  remaining  in  the  Provinces.  In 
some  instances,  the  question  of  ejecting  those  now  resident 
there,  has  been  discussed.  Our  Western  States  will  be  likely 
ta  experience  a  similar  attack  of  the  black  vomito,  when  they 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  107 

shall  have  become  satisfied  with  this  peculiar  Southern  luxury. 
In  some  localities  the  superabundant  free  negro  population  has 
already  become  a  burden,  while  in  others  they  are  under  se 
vere  restrictions,  which  amount  almost  to  an  exclusion  from 
the  limits  of  the  state. 

"  Should  this  exodus  from  Canada  continue  to  any  great  ex 
tent,  it  would  throw  such  a  burden  upon  those  states  which 
have  adopted  the  most  liberal  policy  towards  the  negro,  that  it 
would  occasion  a  reaction  in  the  public  sentiment  which  would 
compel  them  to  abandon  their  abolition  doctrine  and  practice, 
for  their  own  self-protection.  We  should  then  hear  of  fewer 
attempts  to  abduct  slaves  from  the  slave-holding  states  ;  and 
abolitionists  would  be  content  to  allow  slaves  to  remain  under 
the  care  and  protection  of  their  masters.  Even  though  at 
heart  sympathizing  with  the  oppressed  and  task-worn  negro, 
and  yearning  towards  him  with  all  the  love  of  the  professed 
philanthropist,  he  would  still  be  permitted  to  toil  and  bleed  ; 
for  now  that  the  route  to  Canada  has  been  closed,  there  is  no 
alternative  but  -to  take  them  to  their  own  bosoms." 

Compare  with  this  the  condition  of  the  free  blacks  in 
South  Carolina.  The  amount  of  property  held  by  them 
is  $1,600,000  ;  their  annual  taxes,  $27,000  ;  and  the  free 
blacks  own  slaves  to  the  amount  of  $300,000  in  value. 

The  above  statements  teach  us  that  any  attempts  to 
force  the  Southern  slaves  away  from  their  present  rela 
tion,  are  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  Providence  concerning 
them.  If  they  become  free  in  a  natural  way,  and  can 
provide  for  themselves,  or  be  provided  for,  it  is  well ; 
otherwise,  the  South,  and  their  present  relation  to  the 
white  race,  are  the  bounds  of  their  habitation  fixed  for 
them  by  an  all-wise  God,  till  his  purpose  concerning 
them  as  a  race  shall  be  made  manifest.  The  people  of 
the  Free  States  ought  to  thank  God  that  the  South  is 
willing  to  keep  the  colored  people.  Instead  of  inflaming 
our  passions  against  the  abstract  wrongfulness  of  holding 


108  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

fellow-men  in  bondage,  we  should  consider  that  theo 
retical  justice  to  the  slaves  as  a  whole  would  be  practical 
inhumanity.  The  destiny  of  the  colored  race  here  is  a 
dark  problem.  But  it  is  not  for  us  to  penetrate  the 
future.  When  God  is  ready  to  finish  his  purposes  with 
regard  to  their  continuance  with  us,  He  will  open  a  way 
for  their  liberation  ;  in  the  mean  time  it  is  our  duty  to 
protect  them  from  their  own  improvidence  and  from  the 
neglect  and  degradation  which  they  would  suffer  at  the 
hands  of  the  Free  States.  Instead  of  aiding  slaves  to 
escape,  or  rejoicing  when  we  hear  of  runaways,  I  say  we 
should  feel  grateful,  on  our  own  account,  and  for  the 
slaves,  that  the  South  is  willing  to  harbor  them,  and  we 
ought  to  consider  that  the  very  best  thing  to  be  done  for 
them  is  to  encourage  the  South  in  treating  them  well, 
mitigating  their  trials  and  sorrows,  and,  in  short,  comply 
ing  with  the  Apostle's  doctrine  and  exhortations  as  to  the 
duty  of  masters. 

But  we  have  a  way,  at  the  North,  of  delivering  over 
our  Southern  brethren  to  supposed  terrible  liabilities  in 
their  relation  to  the  slaves.  "  They  are  sleeping  on  a 
volcano  ;  "  "  they  keep  weapons  under  their  pillows  ;  " 
"  they  are  always  in  fear."  And  when  a  servile  insur 
rection  takes  place,  many  close  their  eyes  and  lift  their 
hands,  and  say,  "  Perhaps  the  day  of  retribution  is 
come !  They  have  been  '  sinning  against  the  North 
ern  conscience ; '  they  have  been  resisting  our  well- 
meant  efforts  for  their  good  ;  we  would  not  stir  up  the 
slaves  against  them,"  (some  kindly  say,)  "  but  if  they  rise, 
did  not  Jefferson  say,  '  There  is  not  an  attribute  of  the 
Almighty  that  would  take  part  with  the  whites  ? '  "  Thus 
we  prefer  to  take  Jefferson's  opinion  on  this  subject, 
though,  hundreds  as  good  and  wise  as  he,  and  quite  as 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  109 

decided  in  their  acceptance  of  the  Christian  religion,  dif 
fer  totally  from  him.  In  strictly  political  matters,  many 
of  the  same  people  who  love  to  quote  Jefferson  against 
modern  slave-holders,  are  of  opinion  that  time  and  expe 
rience  give  modern  statesmen  some  advantages  in  their 
judgments.  As  to  Jefferson's  oft-quoted  remarkr  above 
cited,  it  appears  to  me  that  if  the  Almighty  has  any 
where  set  the  seal  of  his  divine  blessing,  clear  and  broad, 
it  is  on  the  Christian  influence  of  our  Southern  friends 
upon  this  colored  race. 

It  is  humiliating  to  me,  in  looking  back  to  the  North, 
to  see  how  injudicious  and  weak  we  are  in  pouring  out 
our  sympathy  upon  a  fugitive  slave,  without  discrimina 
tion.  The  lecture  before  the  Boston  audience,  already 
mentioned,  contains  a  perfect  illustration  of  Northern 
credulity  in  the  case  of  fugitive  slaves.  The  lecturer 
tells  us  that  while  reading  the  printed  report  of  Mr. 
Everett's  Oration  at  the  inauguration  of  the  Webster 
statue,  a  fugitive  slave  appeared  at  his  door,  and,  baring 
his  breast  and  back,  showed  him  the  marks  of  the  brand 
ing-iron,  and  the  scars  from  the  lash.  At  the  sight,  he 
says,  the  paper  dropped  from  his  hand.  He  "  thought 
of  Webster  and  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law." 

Now  this  negro  was,  just  as  likely  as  not,  one  of  those 
characters  whom  we  call  jail-birds.  If  so,  and  he  had 
lived  at  the  North,  instead  of  branding-iron  and  stripes, 
he  might  have  had  parti-colored  pants,  and  manacles,  and 
a  record  of  ten  or  twenty  years  in  the  state's  prison.  But 
because  he  ran  away  from  the  South,  he  straightway 
became,  as  a  matter  of  course,  a  martyr  and  a  saint. 
Perhaps  he  was,  truly,  a  saint  ;  and  perhaps  he  was 
not. 

Looking  out  of  the  window  in  a  hotel  the  other  day, 


110  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

we  saw  two  white  men  leading  up  a  black  man  with  a 
leather  bridle  around  his  neck. 

"  Here,  Hattie,"  said  your  Uncle,  "  here  is  slavery ; 
now  you  have  it  in  full  bloom." 

The  poor  fellow  was  crying  and  protesting  and  beg 
ging  to  be  released.  Your  Uncle  stepped  out  and  spoke 
to  a  very  respectable  gentleman  whom  he  met  on  the 
piazza.  He  could  not  refrain  from  expressing  some  feel 
ing  at  the  sight  of  a  fellow-creature  so  literally  "  reduced 
to  the  level  of  the  brutes."  I  did  not  hear  the  whole  of 
the  conversation,  for  my  attention  was  diverted  by  two 
roosters  who  just  then  flew  at  each  other  and  were 
assailed  by  a  troop  of  black  urchins  who  tried  to  scare 
them  apart,  pulling  their  tail-feathers  and  uttering  ludi 
crous  cries. 

"  You  are  from  the  North,  sir,  I  take  it,"  said  the  gen 
tleman,  in  reply  to  your  Uncle. 

"  I  am,  sir,"  said  your  Uncle.  "Do  you  often  bridle 
your  slaves  in  this  way,  in  these  parts  ?  I  am  seeking 
for  information  on  the  subject  of  slavery." 

"  I  shall  be  happy  to  give  you  any,"  said  the  gentle 
man.  "  I  am  here  as  a  magistrate." 

"  I  am  one  at  home,"  said  my  husband. 

"  One  of  these  white  men  who  led  the  negro,"  said  the 
gentleman,  "  was  riding  on  horseback,  and  was  attracted 
to  a  by-place  by  the  screams  of  a  child,  and  found  this 
black  man  attempting  violence  upon  a  black  girl  ten 
years  old.  He  knocked  the  fellow  down  and  held  him, 
and  called  for  help.  A  white  man  who  came  up  took  the 
bridle  from  the  horse,  to  secure  the  villain  with  it.  They 
have  with  difficulty  kept  the  negroes  from  putting  him  to 
death." 

"  We  are  all  ready,  sir,"  said  a  sheriff  to  the  gentleman. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  Ill 

"  Will  you  walk  into  the  hall  ?  "  said  the  magistrate  to 
your  Uncle. 

But  the  stage-coach  was  waiting  for  him,  and  we  were 
soon  on  our  way.  Your  Uncle  was  silent  for  nearly  fif 
teen  minutes,  when  he  said,  — 

"  What  is  that  passage,  Hattie,  about  answering  a  mat 
ter  before  you  understand  it  ?  " 

I  gave  Hattie  my  Bible,  and,  after  a  while,  she  read : 

"  He  that  answereth  a  matter  before  he  heareth  it,  it  is 
folly  and  shame  unto  him.  The  spirit  of  a  man  " 

"  That  will  do,  child,"  said  your  Uncle,  "  I  wanted  only 
that  one  verse." 

I  should  be  glad  to  transfer  some  of  this  Southern  ease 
and  beauty  of  manners  to  the  North.  I  wish  that  we 
could  see  more  of  these  Southern  ladies  and  gentlemen 
there.  They  stay  away  very  much,  because  they  cannot 
bring  servants  with  them.  Whole  families  would  rejoice 
to  visit  our  Northern  shores  and  mountains  for  summer 
residences,  were  it  not  for  this.  When  our  passions  sub 
side,  and  we  can  look  at  this  subject  fairly,  we  shall 
repeal  the  statutes  which  prevent ,  a  Southerner  from 
residing  in  a  free  state  for  a  season,  with  his  or  her  ser 
vant.  The  people  of  Massachusetts,  for  example,  can 
easily  appreciate  the  hardship  of  "being  kept  away  from  a 
clime  which  they  would  visit  for  health  or  recreation,  by 
the  fear  of  being  set  upon  by  a  mob  of  whites  and  blacks 
seeking  to  drag  a  wet-nurse,  for  example,  before  a  court 
to  be  interrogated  whether  she  does  not  wish  to  leave 
us.  How  long  will  our  warm-hearted,  hospitable  peo 
ple  allow  such  things  ?  The  answer,  from  ten  thousand 
tongues,  will  be,  So  long  as  Southern  people  imprison 
colored  seamen  from  the  North !  —  If  Southern  slaves 


112  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

should  come  here  and  make  trouble  between  our  domes 
tics  and  us,  and  we  should  forbid  their  coming,  the  cases 
would  be  more  nearly  parallel.  —  Moreover,  it  will  be 
said  that  the  manner  in  which  people  from  the  North 
have  in  many  instances  of  late  been  treated  at  the  South, 
does  not  encourage  the  hope  and  prospect  of  amicable 
intercourse.  This  is  certainly  so ;  and  therefore  what 
have  we  to  look  for  but  everlasting  hatred  and  strife  ? 
and  that  whether  we  be  one  nation  or  two  confederacies. 

A  distinguished  Southern  gentleman  came  home  from 
his  visit  to  the  North,  where  he  had  received  great  atten 
tions,  and  he  filled  his  hearers  with  his  enthusiastic  ad 
miration  of  us  for  our  wonderful  ingenuity  in  all  the  arts 
of  life. 

"  It  is  astonishing,"  said  he,  "  how  they  work  every 
thing  into  shape,  and  create  instruments  for  their  pur 
poses.  But,"  said  he,  "  there  is  one  thing  in  which  they 
are  deficient.  They  are  omnipotent  with  matter,  but  they 
do  not  know  how  to  govern  men.  If  they  did,"  said  he, 
"  there  would  be  no  chance  for  us  in  any  form  of  contest 
with  them." 

I  was  much  entertained,  and  I  said  to  him  that  I  sup 
posed  his  remarks  would  need  qualification  on  both  sides ; 
but  I  was  greatly  impressed,  as  I  often  am  here,  with  the 
secret,  strong  attachment  which  there  is  in  Southern 
hearts  to  the  North  as  a  part  of  the  country,  irrespective 
of  its  anti-slavery  views  and  feelings.  Its  climate  and 
institutions  and  arts  and  scenery  are  adapted  to  their 
diversified  wants.  "The  North  and  the  South,  Thou 
hast  created  them."  God  made  the  North  for  the  South, 
and  the  South  for  the  North,  and  our  acts  of  non-inter 
course  are  in  violation  of  his  will.  We  are  in  a  war  of 
"  conscience,"  inflamed  by  doctrinal  error  on  our  part. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  113 

It  allows  no  "  conscience  "  to  the  other  side.  The  state 
of  our  "  consciences  "  at  the  North  is  jury,  judge,  and 
executioner.  There  is  no  "  conscience,"  we  think,  in 
Southern  churches,  ministers,  judges,  citizens;  except  that 
which  is  defiled.  Probably  there  is  not  on  earth  this 
day  a  greater  despot,  or  one  more  prepared  for  inquisi 
torial  proceedings,  than  "  Northern  Conscience." 

No  doubt  I  should  be  contented  and  happy  to  be  a 
slave-holder,  had  I  been  born  and  bred  here,  but  I  re 
joice  that  I  belong  to  a  free  state.  I  love  to  think  of 
my  capable  girls,  my  "  help,"  at  home,  who  make  the 
household  go  like  clock-work,  instead  of  having  a  swarm 
of  servants  who  do  only  half  as  much,  and  only  half  as 
well.  I  am  glad,  too,  that  my  children  live  in  a  climate 
favorable  to  labor,  and  are  not  born  to  be  waited  upon. 
But  I  am  ashamed  of  those  who  erect  these  things  into 
an  invidious  comparison,  and  with  a  supercilious,  re 
proachful  spirit.  God,  who  made  us  of  one  blood,  has 
fixed  the  bounds  of  our  habitations.  I  love  these  South 
erners  as  I  never  loved  new  acquaintances  before.  But 
I  prefer  a  state  of  society  free  from  slavery :  yet  this 
makes  me  love  those  to  whom  God  has  given  a  South 
country,  and  imposed  upon  it  a  necessity,  at  present  at 
least,  to  employ  the  African  race  as  cultivators  of  the 
soil.  It  has  often  disturbed  my  feelings  to  hear  some 
people  inveigh  reproachfully  against  the  Southern  coun 
try,  as  comparing  unfavorably  with  neighboring  free 
states.  Going  up  the  Ohio  River  one  day,  a  Northern 
gentleman  pointed  to  some  poor-looking  lands  in  Ken 
tucky  on  the  one  hand,  and  some  flourishing  fields  of  Ohio 
on  the  other.  "  There,  ladies  and  gentlemen,"  said  he,  "  is 
slavery,"  pointing  to  Kentucky,  "  and  there,"  turning  to  the 
other  side,  "  is  freedom." 


114  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  Now,"  said  an  intelligent  Ohioan,  "  if  you  will  excuse 
me  for  saying  it,  I  regard  that  as  clear  humbug.  What 
is  cultivated  on  either  side  ?  The  products  of  Kentucky, 
if  raised  in  Ohio,  would  give  the  same  look  to  her  lands. 
It  is  not  slavery  and  freedom  that  make  the  difference ;  it 
is  the  difference  between  large  staples  sown  over  large 
territories,  and  smaller  staples  raised  on  smaller  fields. 
Kentucky's  soil  would  be  exhausted  just  as  fast  under 
free  labor,  so  long  as  she  cultivated  her  present  crops." 

I  long  to  see  some  clear  running  water.  Our  streams 
and  brooks  in  New  England  are  not  appreciated  till  one 
comes  to  this  part  of  the  land.  I  long  to  see  some  good 
grass.  I  yearn  for  some  hills.  I  would  sail  again  along 
our  rock-bound  coast ;  Oh  for  a  walk  on  its  beaches,  to  see 
the  tunnellings  of  the  sea  in  the  rocks,  and  the  spouting- 
horns.  But  what  a  relief  it  is  to  be  in  a  section  where 
the  Christian  religion  is  so  generally  accepted,  and  the 
swarms  of  errorists  and  sectarians  which  abound  else 
where  are  comparatively  unknown.  Here,  the  lowest 
class,  in  which  error  would  be  prolific,  is  under  instruc 
tion,  to  a  great  degree.  I  see  now  why  it  is  that  false 
views  about  slavery  are  a  great  stimulant  to  heretical 
views  and  feelings ;  —  they  are  a  convenient  substitute 
for  the  love  and  zeal  which  true  Christianity  supplies.  The 
human  mind,  where  it  is  accustomed  to  act  freely,  must 
be  impelled  by  some  master-passion  ;  and  when  true  re 
ligion  does  not  supply  it,  error  stands  ready  to  satisfy  the 
demand. 

On  the  whole,  I  am  persuaded  that  our  Northern  peo 
ple  behave  full  as  well  under  the  anti-slavery  excitement 
as  Southerners  would  if  their  consciences  were  perverted 
like  ours,  and  we  were  the  objects  of  their  opposition. 
I  think  that  a  change  will  come  over  us.  At  the  North, 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  115 

you  have  heard  the  wind,  at  midnight,  after  a  warm 
rain,  in  winter,  haul  out  to  the  north-west,  and  you  know 
what  a  piping  time  we  then  have  of  it,  and  how  the  clear 
cold  air,  the  next  morning,  and  the  bright,  sun,  excite 
and  cheer  us.  There  has  been  with  us  for  a  long  time 
at  the  North,  in  our  political  and  religious  atmosphere,  a 
warm,  foggy,  unwholesome  drizzle  of  weak,  fanatical  feel 
ing,  with  now  and  then  gusts  of  wind  and  scud,  —  a  kind 
of  weather  most  abhorred  by  mariners.  But  we  hope  that 
the  wind  is  changing,  and  that  "  fair  weather  cometh  out 
of  the  North."  God  will  not  suffer  us  to  live  long,  we 
earnestly  hope,  in  this  condition  of  misunderstanding  and 
hatred,  for  it  would  be  contrary  to  his  established  laws 
that  we  should  long  continue  to  be  one  nation  with  such 
feelings  toward  each  other.  The  change  will  be  in  the 
North.  Slavery  will  come  to  be  regarded  as  not  in  itself 
a  sin,  and  the  evils  incident  to  it  will  be  left  for  those 
immediately  concerned  to  bear  them  or  seek  their  re 
moval.  Or,  if  we  become  divided,  the  Southern  sec 
tion  may  extend  its  conquests  into  the  whole  southern 
part  of  the  American  continent,  and  spread  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery  over  that  vast  domain.  God  may  have 
purposed  that  the  good  which  has  flowed  to  the  African 
race  in  this  land  by  its  connection  with  us,  shall  be  extended 
to  millions  more,  not  by  importation,  we  may  suppose, 
but  by  propagation  here.  I  say  this  to  show  that  fanati 
cal  opposers  of  slavery  may  be  employed  under  God  as 
the  instruments  of  extending  slavery  to  the  very  limits  of 
habitable  land  in  the  southern  parts  of  our  continent. 
We  have  tried  in  vain  at  the  North,  for  thirty  years,  to 
abolish  slavery.  It  is  time  either  to  cease,  or  to  try  some 
entirely  different  influences. 

But  I  must  close  my  long   letter.     When   you  write 


116  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

again,  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  will  have  seen  some 
things  in  a  new  light.  Tell  me  more  about  your  studies. 
I  was  interested  in  your  way  of  describing  things.  I  only 
wondered  that,  with  your  occasional  sense  of  the  ludi 
crous,  you  should  not  have  been  aware  of  the  impression 
which  you  yourself  must  have  made  on  others.  Burns's 
"  giftie,"  "  to  see  oursel's,"  etc.,  we  all,  more  or  less,  need. 
I  told  Hattie  the  other  day  that  I  thought  some  parts 
of  your  letter  did  you  very  great  credit,  but  that  the 
monomania  of  the  North  has  fallen  upon  you,  and  that 
you  have  it,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  in  one  of  its  worst  forms. 
Some  it  makes  fierce,  others,  flat,  according  as  the  victim 
is,  naturally,  more  or  less  amiable. 

Your  mother  gave  you  in  charge  to  me  in  her  last 
sickness,  and  I  must  do  all  in  my  power  for  your  best 
good.  I  have,  therefore,  told  you  some  things  which  I 
have  seen  and  considered.  These  you  must  now  add  to 
the  facts  of  your  "  inductive  philosophy."  Your  defini 
tion  of  "  pro-slavery,"  and  "  friends  of  oppression,"  is  a  fair 
illustration  of  a  prevailing  state  of  mind  at  the  North  :  — 
"  Pro-slavery  —  i.  <?.,  do  not  agree  with  me  in  my  man 
ner  of  viewing  and  treating  the  subject."  This  you  will 
correct.  Excuse  my  freedom,  but  you  have  no  father 
nor  mother  now,  to  advise  and  guide  you,  and  you  must 
let  me  be  your  Mentor  in  some  things.  I  shall  keep 
your  letter  and  let  you  see  it  perhaps  ten  years  hence. 
Be  careful  what  newspapers  you  read.  Those  which 
abound  with  low,  opprobrious  language  about  the  South 
and  Southerners,  avoid.  There  are  some  low  Southern 
ers  about  here  who  go  around  buying  up  refractory  and 
vicious  negroes  ;  they  are  the  dregs  of  society ;  but  I 
have  listened,  with  others,  at  the  North,  to  men,  on  the 
subject  of  "  freedom,"  who,  I  think,  would  take  kindly  to 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  117 

this  business,  and  they  would  be  as  hearty  in  it  as  they 
are  now  in  vilifying  it.  The  "  Legrees  "  are  not  con 
fined  to  the  South.  Do  not  incline  your  ear  to  those 
who  systematically  inveigh  against  slavery,  making  it 
their  principal  business.  You  will  invariably  find  that 
there  is  something  false  and  wrong  in  their  principles  as 
well  as  spirit.  Be  careful  to  what  influences  you  commit 
your  thoughts  and  your  taste. 

You  need  not  become  a  friend  of  oppression  ;  you  need 
not  approve  of  "  auction-blocks,"  and  "  separation  of 
families  ; "  slavery  can  exist  when  these  are  done  away. 
Until  you  are  appointed  and  commissioned  as  a  minister 
of  righteousness  to  Southern  Christians  and  ministers,  I 
advise  you  to  blot  slavery  out  of  the  list  of  topics  about 
which  you  are  called  to  express  the  least  concern.  The 
South  will  work  out  the  problem  for  herself,  with  the 
help  of  that  God  who  has  evidently  appointed  her  to  do 
a  great  work  for  the  African  race,  and  all  the  more  per 
fectly  and  speedily  as  our  Northern  people  let  her  entire 
ly  alone  as  to  the  moral  relations  of  the  subject. 

You  subscribe  yourself,  "  Yours  for  the  slave  ; "  I  shall 
subscribe  myself,  "  Yours  for  preaching  the  Gospel  to 
every  creature." 

With  the  strongest  love, 

Your  affectionate  Aunt. 


118  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

QUESTIONS    AND    ANSWERS. 

"  The  sages  say  dame  Truth  delights  to  dwell, 
Strange  mansion  !  in  the  bottom  of  a  -well. 
Questions  are,  then,  the  windlass  and  the  rope 
That  pull  the  grave  old  gentlewoman  up." 

PETER  PINDAR. 

MY  friend,  Mr.  North,  having  read  the  foregoing  let 
ters,  wrote  me  a  note  requesting  me  to  come  and 
spend  an  evening  with  him  and  his  wife,  and  answer 
some  questions  occasioned  by  these  letters.  The  lady 
was  earnest  that  I  should  do  so. 

After  being  seated  before  a  cheerful  fire  in  my  friend's 
house,  while  it  was  raining  violently,  so  that  we  felt  de 
fended  from  all  interruption,  my  friend  said,  — 

"  Here,  first  of  all,  is  the  Southern  lady's  letter  to  her 
father,  which,  I  suppose,  belongs  to  him,  and  which  you 
may  wish  to  send  back." 

"I  do,"  said  I. 

"  But,  please,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  let  it  be  published. 
Add  to  it  the  incident  of  the  Southern  lady  nursing  the 
sick  babe  of  a  slave." 

"  O  my  dear,"  said  her  husband,  "  that  would  create  a 
false  impression.  It  would  be  a  pro-slavery  tract.  It 
would  abate  Northern  zeal  against  the  '  sum  of  all  vil- 
lanies.'  Something  should  go  forth  with  such  representa- 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  119 

tions  to  correct  their  influence  in  the  Free  States.  What 
would  become  of  the  cause  of  freedom  should  such  sto 
ries  make  their  impression  upon  the  minds  of  our  peo 
ple  ?  " 

"  You  might,"  said  I,  "  make  a  heading  of  an  auction- 
block,  or  slave-coffle  ;  add  the  last  pattern  of  a  slave- 
driver's  whip  ;  picture  a  panting  fugitive  on  his  way  to 
the  North  ;  give  us  a  ship's  hold,  with  a  black  boy  just 
detected  among  the  stowage.  You  would  thus,  perhaps, 
keep  these  beautiful,  touching  illustrations  of  loving-kind 
ness  in  slave-holders  from  having  the  least  effect." 

"  It  is  very  important,"  said  he,  seriously,  "  to  keep 
up  a  just  abhorrence  of  slavery  here  at  the  North,  be- 


"  Excuse  me,"  said  I,  "  but  what  do  you  mean  by  an 
abhorrence  of  slavery  ?  " 

"Why,"  said  he,  "is  not  the  Christian  world  agreed 
that  *  slavery  is  the  sum  of  all  villanies  '  ?  " 

"  By  no  means,  in  the  United  States,"  said  I ;  "  you 
might  with  as  real  truth  say  that  here  slavery  is  the  sum 
of  all  the  loving-kindnesses." 

"  Is  not  that  letter  of  the  Southern  lady  to  her  father," 
said  he,  "  as  rare  a  thing  almost  as  a  white  crow  ?  " 

"  O  husband,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  what  an  opinion  you 
must  have  of  Southern  society  !  " 

"  Is  not  Gustavus,"  said  I,  "  a  perfect  representative 
of  the  North,  on  the  subject  of  slavery  ?  Does  not  ultra 
anti-slavery  find  or  make  everybody,  as  the  Aunt  says, 
either  fierce  or  flat  ?  " 

"  You  do  not  believe  so,"  said  he. 

"  Neither  do  you  believe,"  said  I,  "  that  where  Chris 
tianity  has  exerted  the  same  influence  on  the  hearts  of 
men  and  women  as  on  yours,  and  all  the  humanizing  and 


120  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

elevating  influences  of  society  prevail,  that  letter  is  a  rare 
product." 

"  I  cannot  believe,"  said  he,  "  that  one  can  own  a  fel 
low-creature,  hold  God's  image  as  property,  and  be  a 
true  Christian.  This  lady  is  an  exception  which  does 
not  destroy  the  general  rule." 

"  My  dear  sir,"  said  I,  "  you  are  an  abstractionist. 
You  make  the  best  possible  condition  under  the  sun 
your  standard,  to  which  you  would  make  all  men  and 
things  conform,  instead  of  allowing  for  the  vast  inequali 
ties,  the  necessities,  the  mutual  dependence,  the  long  his 
torical  conditions  of  men,  as  individuals  and  races.  A 
race  or  class  of  human  beings  may  be  in  such  a  condi 
tion,  that  being  '  owned '  by  a  superior  race  will  be,  in 
their  circumstances,  a  real  mercy  and  a  great  blessing." 

"  0  my  dear  sir,"  said  he,  "  I  weep  over  the  degrada 
tion  of  your  moral  sense.  *  Owning  a  fellow-creature  ! ' 
I  would  not  hold  property  in  a  human  being  '  for  all  the 
wealth  that  sinews  bought  and  sold  have  ever  earned.'  " 

"  Thousands  of  men  and  women,"  I  replied,  "  as  good 
in  the  sight  of  God  as  you  or  I,  think  otherwise.  There 
is  nothing  in  the  relation  of  ownership  to  a  human  being 
which  in  itself  is  sinful,  or  wrong." 

"  If  it  is  your  purpose,"  said  he,  "  to  argue  in  favor 
of  oppression,  perhaps  we  had  better  not  pursue  the  con 
versation." 

"  Uncharitableness,  false  judgments,  self-righteousness," 
said  I,  "  condemning  a  whole  people  for  the  sins  of  a 
few,  are  as  truly  '  oppression '  as  anything  can  be.  I 
plead  for  no  wrongs  ;  I  justify  no  selfishness  in  the  rela 
tion  of  master  and  servant ;  I  regard  the  golden  rule  of 
Christ  as  the  law  by  which  slave-holding  should  be  regu 
lated  in  every  instance." 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  121 

"  I  never  expected,"  said  he,  "  to  live  long  enough  to 
hear  of  the  golden  rule  being  applied  to  slavery  !  It 
would  be  like  applying  light  to  darkness,  truth  to  false 
hood,  holiness  to  sin." 

"  By  what  rule,"  I  inquired,  "  do  you  think  the  lady 
is  habitually  governed  who  wrote  the  letter  which  has 
interested  you  so  mueh  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  he,  "  there  are  good  people  under  every 
iniquitous  system.  These  exceptional  cases  are  not  the 
rule  of  judgment  with  regard  to  the  nature  and  effect  of 
a  system." 

"  Can  you  not  imagine  one  man  owning  another,"  said 
T,  "  under  circumstances,  and  with  motives,  and  in  a  tem 
per  and  spirit  which  will  make  the  relation  most  desir 
able  ?  " 

"  I  go  further  back,"  said  he,  "  and  I  deny  that  it  is 
right  for  one  human  being  to  own  another." 

"  Has  not  God  a  right,"  said  I,  "  to  place  one  human 
being  over  another  as  his  owner  ?  " 

"  Has  God  a  right,"  said  he,  "  to  countenance  theft 
and  oppression  ?  " 

I  said  to  him  :  "  I  might  follow  your  example,  and 
answer  you  by  asking,  Has  God  a  right  to  countenance 
war  ?  But  I  will  relieve  all  your  disagreeable  apprehen 
sions  as  to  our  conversation  at  once,  by  saying  that  I  am 
not  to  argue  in  favor  of  oppression.  If  holding  a  slave 
is  oppression,  it  is  a  sin.  And  if  it  be  inconsistent  with 
the  golden  rule,  it  is  a  sin." 

"If  that  be  your  doctrine,"  said  he,  "we  shall  soon 
agree.  Now  apply  the  golden  rule  to  slavery.  Are 
there  any  circumstances  in  which  you  would  yourself  be 
willing  to  be  '  owned  '  ?  " 

"  Certainly,"  I  replied. 


122  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

He  rose,  and  put  some  lumps  of  coal  upon  the  fire  with 
the  tongs,  and  said,  "  I  presume  you  mean  what  you  say, 
and  that  you  do  not  wish  to  trifle  with  the  subject." 

"  Mr.  North,"  said  I,  "  would  you  be  willing  that  any 
one  should  make  you  head-cook  in  a  hotel,  engineer  in  a 
steamboat,  or  keeper  of  a  floating  light  ? " 

"  No,  Sir,"  said  he. 

"  You  would,  Mr.  North,"  said  I,  "  under  given  cir 
cumstances.  You  would  petition  for  such  places,  get 
recommendations  for  them,  and  count  yourself  perfectly 
happy,  if  you  succeeded  in  obtaining  them. 

"  Now  look  at  the  slaves.  They  are  a  foreign  race, 
we  are  their  civil  superiors,  and  unless  we  amalgamate,  we 
intend  to  remain  so.  While  we  are  in  this  relation,  it  is 
a  privilege  to  the  blacks  to  have  owners,  but  they  must 
use  their  ownership  according  to  the  golden  rule.  When 
this  is  done,  the  condition  of  the  blacks,  in  their  present 
relation  to  us,  is  happy." 

"  How  often,"  said  he,  "  do  you  suppose  that  it  is 
done?" 

"  That,"  said  I,  "  is  another  and  a  very  interesting 
question,  which  we  will  consider  soon.  You  took  the 
ground,  as  I  understood  you,  that  the  law  of  love  would 
prevent  any  one  from  holding  a  fellow-creature  as  a 
slave.  I  reply  that  it  would  be  in  perfect  accordance 
with  it,  as  the  blacks  at  the  South  are  now  situated,  for 
the  whites  to  be  their  humane  owners.  But  pray  what 
do  you  mean  by  *  owning '  a  human  being  ?  " 

"  I  mean,"  said  he,  "  having  the  right-  to  abuse  them, 
domineer  over  them,  work  them  as  cattle,  sell  them, 
and  —  " 

"  Did  this  Southern  lady,"  said  I,  while  he  paused  for 
more  words,  "  ever  acquire  a  right  with  her  ownership 
to  treat  Kate  so  ?  " 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  123 

"  Pier  laws,"  said  he,  "  give  her  a  right  to  punish  her ; 
and  such  irresponsible  power  is  fearful.  She  could  whip 
her  to  death  and" 

"  And  be  punished  for  it,"  said  I,  "  as  surely  as  you 
would  be  for  whipping  a  servant  to  death." 

"  She  is  at  liberty  to  punish  more  severely  than  the 
case  warrants,"  said  he,  "  and  then  she  can  shield  herself 
under  the  laws." 

"  I  presume,"  said  I,  "a  Northern  parent  never  gives 
a  hasty  box  on  the  ear,  never  strikes  one  passionate  blow 
in  the  chastisement,  never  shakes  a  child  a  single  trill 
beyond  the  due  harmony  of  parental  affection,  never 
scourges  it  with  the  tongue  to  momentary  madness ! 
What  a  dreadful  thing  parental  authority  is  !  Would 
it  not  be  well  to  abolish  the  authority  of  parents  over 
children !  Indeed,  would  it  not  be  well  to  go  further, 
and  interdict  the  public  lands  of  the  United  States  from 
being  settled ;  for  as  surely  as  men  live  there,  every  form 
of  wickedness  will,  in  its  turn,  be  perpetrated.  How 
much  better  the  calm  and  holy  silence  of  the  woods  and 
fields,  than  if  the  tumultuous  passions  of  men  should  roll 
over  them ! " 

"But,  my  dear  sir,"  said  he,  "I  maintain  that  oppres 
sion  is  inseparable  from  the  holding  of  a  slave.  I  insist 
that  this  Southern  lady,  if  all  her  feelings  and  conduct 
toward  her  servants  are  like  her  letter,  is  an  exception 
among  her  people." 

"  No,  Sir,"  said  I,  "  she  is  the  general  rule  among  all 
decent  people,  and  there  is  as  much  sense  of  decency  and 
propriety  there  as  with  us,  as  many  good  people,  kind, 
humane,  generous,  and  it  is  as  rare  a  thing  for  a  servant 
to  be  ill-used  there,  as  for  our  apprentices,  and  servants, 
and  even  our  children.  How  kind  and  good  you  would 


124    '  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

be,  Sir,  if  Providence  should  place  a  human  being  under 
you  as  his  owner,  for  the  mutual  good  of  both  of  you." 

"  Dear  me,"  said  he,  "  I  should  try  to  feel  and  act  just 
as  I  suppose  those  Southerners  do  who,  you  say,  are 
fairly  represented  by  this  lady's  letter  about  the  slave- 
babe." 

"  Mr.  North,"  said  I,  "  suppose  that  the  State  should 
make  you  the  absolute  owner  of  some  of  those  boys  who 
set  fire  to  the  Westboro'  and  Deer  Island  institutions.  In 
consideration  of  your  personal  responsibility  for  them, 
there  is  ceded  to  you  all  right  and  title  to  their  services, 
and  absolute  control  over  them,  subject,  of  course,  to  the 
laws  against  misdemeanors  and  crimes  against  the  person. 
My  only  point  is  this :  Where  would  be  the  sinfulness  of 
that  relation  ?  All  that  would  be  sinful  about  it  would 
be  in  your  neglect  or  violation  of  your  duty  as  a  master." 

"  How  glad  all  this  makes  me  feel,"  said  he,  "  that 
I  am  not  troubled  with  slaves.  If  we  do  not  like  our 
servants  or  apprentices,  we  can  get  rid  of  them." 

"  Then,"  said  I,  "  you  surely  ought  to  pity  those  who 
are  bound  to  their  slaves  and  have  to  put  up  with  a 
thousand  things  which  you  say  we  can  escape  by  chang 
ing  our  help." 

"  But,"  said  he,  "  can  they  not  sell  off  their  slaves 
when  they  please  ?  " 

"  Suppose,  however,"  said  I,  "  that  they  happen  to  be 
humane,  as  Mr.  North  is,  and  as  we  all  are  in  the  Free 
States  !  and  that  they  are  unwilling  to  turn  off  a  poor 
helpless  creature  for  her  faults,  to  be  sold,  and  to  go  they 
know  not  where  !  " 

"  Slavery,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  is  surely  a  great  curse. 
I  am  so  glad  that  I  live  under  free  institutions." 

"  Who   made    us    to    differ   from    the    South    in    this 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  125 

respect  ?  How  came  those  blacks  there  ?  Whose  ships, 
whose  money,  imported  them  ?  You  remember  that  it 
was  by  the  votes  of  Free  States,  that  the  importation  of 
slaves  was  continued  for  eight  years  beypnd  the  time 
when  the  Southern  States  had  voted  in  the  Convention 
that  it  should  cease.  And  now  what  would  yon  have 
the  South  do  with  the  slaves,  to-day  ?  " 

"  Set  them  all  free,"  said  he,  " '  break  every  yoke ;  pro 
claim  liberty  to  the  captives,  the  opening  of  the  prison- 
doors  to  them  that  are  bound.' " 

"  Allow  me,"  said  I,  "  to  smile  at  your  simplicity,  for 
you  are  very  child-like,  not  to  say  childish,  in  your  feel 
ings.  You  would  have  the  colored  people  universally  go 
free.  Do  you  really  think  that  Kate  is  worse  off  in  be 
ing  what  you  call  a  slave,  than  that  young,  free  black 
woman  who  keeps  a  stall  and  sells  verses  and  knives 
near  our  Park  ?  " 

"  O  dear  sir,"  said  he,  "  liberty  is  a  priceless  boon ; 
liberty  "— 

"  Liberty  to  what  ?  "  said  I. 

"  Why,"  said  he,  "  liberty  not  to  be  sold,  nor  to  be 
beaten,  nor  to  be  subject  to  the  wicked  passions  of  a 
master." 

"  Would  you  rather,"  said  I,  "  have  your  daughter  a 
servant  in  a  Southern  family,  brought  up  as  a  playmate 
with  the  children,  a  sharer  in  many  of  their  gifts,  a  part 
ner  with  their  parents,  as  the  children  grew  up,  in  the 
pride  and  joy  of  the  parents,  an  honored  member  of  the 
wedding  party  when  a  daughter  is  married,  one  of  the 
principal  mourners  when  the  bride  departs,  identified  with 
the  history  of  the  family,  provided  for  in  the  will,  a  sup 
port  guaranteed  to  her  by  law  in  sickness  and  old  age, 
and  that,  too,  not  in  a  pauper  establishment,  but  in  her 


126  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

owner's  home,  and  when  the  parents  die,  if  she  survives, 
taken  by  some  branch  of  the  family  or  neighbor  from  re 
gard  to  her  and  to  them ;  her  moral  and  religious  char 
acter  improved  under  their  training,  a  respectable  stand 
ing  in  society  conferred  upon  her  by  her  connection  with 
them,  her  religious  privileges  sacredly  secured  to  her, 
any  insult  redressed  as  though  it  were  the  family's  per 
sonal  affair ;  she  a  partaker  of  their  food  and  of  all  their 
comforts,  and  followed  to  her  grave  with  respect  and 
love ;  or,  for  the  sake  of  '  priceless  liberty,'  '  heaven's 
best  gift  to  man,'  would  you  prefer  to  see  her  seated 
under  the  iron  fence  of  a  park,  an  old  umbrella  tied  to 
the  pickets  for  her  shelter,  and  she,  in  rain  and  sunshine, 
selling  *  Old  Dan  Tucker,'  '  Jim  Crow,  Illustrated,'  and 
pea-nuts,  and  sleeping  you  know  not  where  ?  Which 
lot  would  you  choose  for  a  child  ?  Which  is  best  for  this 
world  and  the  next?  In  one  case,  she  is  'owned,'  she 
is  '  a  slave  ; '  and  in  the  other,  she  is  a  free  woman." 

"  You  have  no  right,"  said  he,  with  some  warmth,  "  to 
take  the  best  condition  in  slavery,  and  the  very  worst  in 
freedom,  and  compel  me  to  choose." 

"  '  Best  condition  in  slavery  ! ' "  said  I ;  "is  there  any 
*  best '  in  being  a  slave,  in  not  being  free  ?  Does  it  ad 
mit  of  degrees  ?  Is  not  being  *  owned '  such  a  curse, 
such  an  unmixed  iniquity  in  its  essence,  that  to  compare 
its  best  estate  with  the  worst  in  freedom,  is  like  compar 
ing  the  best  devil  with  the  most  inferior  saint  ?  Is  not  a 
devil's  nature  incapable  of  comparison  as  good,  better, 
best,  with  anything  which  is  not,  in  its  nature,  devilish  ? 
According  to  your  conversation  just  now,  it  seemed  as 
though  being  'owned'  always  implied  an  unmitigated 
transgression ;  and  now  when  I  inquire  whether  you 
would  prefer  degradation  to  the  iniquity  of  being  'owned* 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  127 

in  comfort  and  usefulness,  respectability  and  happiness, 
you  shrink  from  the  question.  If  freedom  in  the  ab 
stract  is  the  best  thing  under  the  sun,  of  course  you  will 
prefer  it  to  everything  else.  No  happy  condition,  no 
happy  prospect  for  this  life,  and  the  life  to  come  can,  in 
your  view,  make  being '  a  slave,'  as  you  call  it,  capable  of 
being  compared  with  this  abstract  privilege  of  being  free. 
In  this  you  and  your  friends  labor  under  a  huge  mis 
take,  and  it  poisons  all  your  views  and  feelings  about 
slavery.  When  you  denounce  slave-holders  and  sla 
very,  and  depict  the  condition  of  the  slave  in  your  awful 
colors,  they  at  the  South  know  that  in  hundreds  of  thou 
sands  of  instances,  as  it  regards  masters  and  slaves,  all 
that  you  say  is  practically  false  ;  you  are  carried  away 
by  your  zeal  against  a  theoretical  wrong. 

"  Now  suppose  that  instead  of  starting  with  the  theo 
retical  wrong  and  getting  only  such  facts  as  illustrate  it, 
you  sholild  travel  through  the  South  to  pick  up  such 
letters  as  you  consider  this,  respecting  Kate,  to  be ;  —  what 
a  pleasing  view  might  be  presented  of  the  slaves'  condi 
tion  in  cases  without  number!" 

"  But,"  said  he,  "  there  are  terrible  evils  underlying 
these  fair  features  of  slavery." 

"  True,"  said  I,  "  but  why,  in  the  name  of  truth  and 
love  do  you  never  hear  such  a  letter  as  this  read  on 
the  platforms  of  Northern  abolition  societies  ?  What 
mingled  groans  and  hisses  and  shrieks  for  freedom,  and 
then  what  an  emptying  of  the  demoniacal  epithets  there 
would  be,  if  such  a  letter  should  be  offered.  One  case 
of  whipping  would  have  more  effect  than  a  thousand 
such  letters,  in  your  assemblies  and  newspapers.  No 
one  from  the  continent  of  Europe  would  infer  from  those 
meetings  that  such  beings  as  Kate  and  her  little  babe, 


128  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

and  this  lady  and  her  husband  and  father,  existed  even  in 
fiction,  but  that  slave-holders  are  Legrees,  and  the  slaves 
their  victims.  What  a  beautiful  effect  it  would  have  on 
us  and  on  the  South,  if  touching  tales  of  loving-kindness 
between  masters  and  slaves,  instances  of  perfect  happi 
ness  in  that  relation,  should  be  cited,  and  then  you  should 
enter  your  candid,  but  decided  opposition  to  the  system, 
to  its  extension,  to  its  evils  where  it  exists.  How  soon 
we  should  all  be  found  working  together,  so  far  as  we 
might,  for  the  amelioration  of  the  colored  race  here,  with 
a  view  to  the  extinction  of  slavery,  in  every  form  of  it 
in  which  it  is  an  evil,  or  a  greater  evil  than  anything 
which  might  properly  be  substituted." 

"  Well,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  husband,  what  do  you  say 
to  that?" 

"  I  like  it,"  said  he. 

"  But  now,"  said  I,  "  the  language  of  the  place  of  de 
spair  is  exhausted  in  describing  and  denouncing  the 
South.  If  a  man  among  us  lifts  up  his  voice  to  say  good 
things  about  Southerners,  one  universal  hiss  goes  up 
from  all  your  conventions  and  anti-slavery  prints.  He 
may  be  seeking  the  same  end  with  you,  namely,  the 
peaceful  removal  of  slavery,  with  due  regard  to  the  high 
est-  good  of  all  concerned  ;  but  let  him  utter  a  word  in 
arrest  of  your  unqualified  condemnation  of  slavery  as  it 
actually  is,  and  there  are  no  persecutors,  nor  scourges, 
nor  intolerance  on  the  earth,  more  fierce  and  cruel  than 
you  and  your  denunciations." 

"  Take  it  patiently,  husband,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  you 
know  that  you  deserve  it." 

"  I  know  from  this,"  said  I,  "  if  from  nothing  else,  that 
your  theory  is  wrong.  The  truth  does  not  excite  such 
passions  in  those  who  love  and  seek  to  promote  it.  We 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  129 

see  that,  in  cases  without  number,  the  present  condition 
of  the  slaves  is  a  blessing  for  both  worlds,  and  that  if  all 
who  possess  slaves  were,  as  many  are,  slavery  would 
cease  to  be  any  more  of  a  curse  than  any  dependent  con 
dition  in  this  world.  There  must  always  be  those  who 
will  do  every  sort  of  menial  work.  The  great  Father 
of  all,  who  himself  says  that  he  has  '  deprived '  the 
ostrich  '  of  wisdom,  neither  hath  he  imparted  to  her  un 
derstanding,'  so  arranges  the  capacities  of  some  that  their 
happiness  consists  in  leaning  upon  superior  intelligence 
and  capability. 

"  The  serving  people,  in  some  districts  of  country,  are 
volunteers  from  all  races  ;  at  the  South,  they  consist  of 
one  inferior,  dependent  race,  who  for  ages  have  been 
slaves  in  their  own  country,  and  would  be  such  even  now, 
if  they  were  there.  We  will  not  shut  the  door  of  hope 
forever  upon  any  part  of  the  human  family,  as  to  their 
elevation  among  the  tribes  of  men,  but  this  race  has,  for 
a  long  period  of  its  history,  evidently  been  undergoing 
a  tutelage  and  discipline  at  the  hand  of  Providence. 
There  is  some  marvellous  arrangement  of  Providence, 
it  seems  to  me,  designing  that  this  black  race  shall  lean 
upon  us.  Let  the  same  number  of  any  other  immigrant 
race  have  gone  from  us  to  Canada  as  of  this  colored 
race,  and  the  world  would  have  heard  a  better  report 
from  them  ere  this.  They  thrive  best  in  connection  with 
us  as  their  masters,  whether  it  be  right  or  wrong  for  us 
to  be  in  such  relation  to  them." 

"  But  now,"  said  he,  —  in  a  persuasive  tone,  and  evi 
dently  wishing  to  turn  the  drift  of  the  remarks,  —  "just 
set  them  free,  and  hire  them  ;  we  shall  agree  then.  The 
slaves  will  be  as  well  off,  and  so  will  their  masters." 

"  Mr.  North,"  said  I,  "  being  owned  is,  in  itself,  irre- 

G* 


130  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

spective  of  the  character  of  the  master,  a  means  of  pro 
tection  to  the  negro.  Somebody  then  is  responsible  for 
him  as  his  guardian  and  provider,  and  is  amenable  to  the 
State  for  his  sustenance.  You  can  easily  see  that,  let 
the  colored  people  come  to  be  a  hireling  class,  and  their 
interests  and  those  of  their  masters  are  disjoined.  There 
would  be  conflicts  and  oppressions  among  themselves  ;  they 
would  fall  into  a  degraded,  serf-like  condition  ;  but  now 
each  of  them  partakes  of  his  master's  interests,  and  rises 
with  him.  I  am  not  here  pleading  for  slavery  in  the 
abstract,  but,  the  blacks  being  on  the  soil,  it  is  far  better 
for  them  to  be  owned  than  to  be  free.  Why  are  the 
Southwestern  States,  one  after  another,  passing  laws,  or 
framing  their  constitutions,  to  shut  out  from  their  borders 
free  negroes, — people  in  the  very  condition  into  which  you 
would  reduce  by  wholesale  all  the  blacks  in  the  South  ? 
I  pray  you  look  and  see  that  you  are  an  abstractionist, 
setting  what  you  deem  a  theoretical  wrong  against  a 
practical  good,  and  under  the  circumstances,  a  real  mercy." 

"  But/'  said  Mr.  North,  "  slavery  impoverishes  the  soil, 
makes  the  whites  shun  labor,  feeling  it  to  be  degrading, 
and  it  keeps  the  white  children  from  industrial  pursuits, 
and  "  - 

"  Please  stop,"  said  I,  "  my  dear  Sir,  and  think  of  what 
you  are  saying,  and  be  not  carried  away  by  that  popular 
flood  of  cant  phrases.  Now  you  know  that  God  has  given 
our  Southern  friends  a  south  country,  nearer  than  ours 
to  the  tropics.  Out-of-door  labor  there  is  injurious  to  the 
white  people,  as  you  know.  They  are  not  to  be  blamed 
for  this.  God  has  not  given  them  strength  to  endure  ex 
posure  to  the  sun.  Had  they  a  northern  climate,  in 
which  the  labor  required  by  the  mechanic  arts  could  be 
performed  with  safety  and  comfort,  do  you  not  suppose 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  131 

that  they  would  have  the  same  aptitude  and  relish  as  we 
for  handicraft  ?  Their  children  cannot  be  brought  up  to 
manual  labor  to  the  extent  that  ours  are,  because  the  God 
of  heaven  has  ordained  their  lot  in  a  land  less  favorable 
than  ours  to  toil.  His  providence,  making  use  of  the  sins 
of  men,  has  placed  the  blacks  here ;  you  and  the  rest  of 
the  world,  who  depend  upon  their  cotton,  are  willing 
enough  to  use  it  in  its  countless  forms,  while  you  re 
proach  your  Maker,  as  I  think,  for  having  caused  it  to 
be  raised  as  he  has  seen  fit  to  do." 

"  But  Oh,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  free  labor  is  more  profit 
able  than  slave  labor.  You  well  know  how  it  affects  the 
soil,  and  that  the  great  price  of  slaves  will  in  time  make 
the  system  oppressive  to  the  masters,  especially  if  they 
are  all  as  considerate  as  you  say  they  are  about  selling." 

"  The  good  Aunt  has  replied  to  you  as  to  the  soil,  and 
we  need  not  distress  ourselves  about  the  price  of  slaves ;  that 
will  regulate  itself.  You  well  understand,"  said  I,  "  that  I 
am  not  arguing  in  favor  of  slavery  perse,  nor  for  the  slave- 
trade,  nor  for  the  extension  of  slavery  ;  but  I  contend  that 
where  slavery  now  exists,  no  one  has  yet  proposed  a  scheme 
which  is  better  than  the  continuance  of  ownership,  the 
blacks  remaining  on  the  same  soil  with  their  present 
masters.  Nor  do  I  mean  to  say  that  the  present  system 
must  inevitably  continue  forever.  We  must  leave  future 
developments  in  other  hands.  Of  course  there  are  dif 
ficult  problems  on  such  a  subject  as  this.  Intelligent 
Christian  gentlemen  at  the  South  say  that  the  best 
schemes  which  have  been  proposed  by  Europeans  for 
the  substitution  of  apprenticed  negroes  for  slaves  would 
make  the  condition  of  the  negro  as  far  worse  than  our 
slavery  as  the  condition  of  a  degraded  negro  here  is  be 
low  that  of  his  master.  Who  will  care  for  him  when  he 


132  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

is  old,  or  sick  ?  Granting  this  apprentice  scheme  to  be 
arranged  without  oppression  or  sin  of  any  kind,  I  hold 
that  the  condition  of  our  slaves  owned  by  masters  and 
mistresses,  is  better  than  such  a  hireling  condition,  though 
it  have  the  appearance  of  liberty." 

"  Why  so  ?  "  inquired  Mr.  North. 

"  The  slaves  are  not  treated  as  hired  horses  are  liable 
to  be  treated,"  I  replied.  "  We  know  how  a  man  is  likely 
to  treat  his  own  horse,  compared  with  the  horse  which  he 
hires.  Men  nurse  their  slaves  when  they  are  sick  ;  they 
provide  for  them  when  they  are  old.  By  their  care  and 
responsibility  for  them,  and  in  relieving  them  from  respon 
sibility,  they  pay  them  wages  whose  market-value,  if  it 
could  be  reckoned  in  dollars,  would  be  higher  wages  than 
are  paid  to  the  same  class  of  laborers  in  the  land.  There 
are  not  four  millions  of  the  lower  class  of  the  laboring 
people  in  any  one  district  of  the  earth  whose  condition  is 
to  be  compared  with  that  of  the  Southern  slaves  for 
comfort  and  happiness." 

"  I  presume,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  that  you  would  not  re 
gard  exemption  from  responsibility  as  in  itself  a  blessing. 
You  know  how  it  educates  us,  how  it  sharpens  the  facul 
ties,  how  it  makes  a  man  more  of  a  man ;  therefore  is  it, 
after  all,  any  kindness  to  the  slaves,  that  they  are  relieved 
from  responsibility  ?  " 

"  I  thank  you,"  said  I,  "  for  that  question.  Does  it  con 
cern  us  that  our  domestic  servants  are  relieved,  for  the  time, 
of  all  responsibility  for  house-rent,  taxes,  political  duties  ? 

"  Every  condition  of  poverty  and  toil  has  its  peculiar 
hardships  and  sorrows.  But  putting  together,  respective 
ly,  all  the  advantages  and  the  disadvantages  of  our  slaves, 
he  who  looks  upon  a  population  with  enlarged  views  of 
liabilities  and  of  the  inevitable  results  in  the  working  of 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  133 

different  schemes  of  labor,  and  is  not  so  weak  or  morbid 
as  to  dwell  inordinately  on  real  and  imaginary  wrongs  and 
miseries,  which,  after  all,  if  real,  are  compensated  for  by 
advantages  or  surpassed  by  aggregated  smaller  evils  in 
other  conditions,  must  admit  that,  the  colored  people  being 
here,  their  being  owned  is  the  very  best  possible  thing 
for  their  protection,  and  the  surest  guarantee  against  all 
their  liabilities  to  want  in  hard  times,  sickness,  and  old 
age. 

"  Speaking  of  hard  times  leads  me  to  say,  that  if  you 
could  put  four  millions  of  laboring  people  in  the  Free 
States,  for  a  winter  or  during  commercial  distresses  and 
the  stagnation  of  every  kind  of  business,  in  a  position 
where,  while  they  were  still  active  and  useful,  a  single 
thought  or  care  about  their  sustenance  would  not  visit 
them,  you  would  be  deemed  a  philanthropist  and  public 
benefactor.  There  will  not  be  the  same  number  of  peo 
ple  in  the  laboring  class  throughout  our  land  next  winter, 
in  any  one  section,  whose  comfort  and  happiness  will  ex 
ceed  that  of  our  slaves." 

"  Oh,  well,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  all  this  may  be  true,  but 
this  does  not  reconcile  me  to  slavery.  Our  horses  here  at 
the  North  will  all  be  comfortably  provided  for,  notwith 
standing  any  money  pressure.  But  I  would  rather  be  a 
human  being  and  fail,  every  winter,  than  be  a  horse." 

"  Husband,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  do  you  consider  that  a 
parallel  case?  Mr.  C.  is  not  arguing,  as  I  understand  him, 
that  slavery  is  better  than  freedom.  He  is  not  persuading 
us  to  be  slaves  rather  than  free.  He  takes  these  four  mil 
lions  of  blacks  as  he  finds  them,  in  bondage,  and  he  asks, 
What  shall  we  do  witli  them  ?  You  say,  Set  them  free. 
He  says,  They  are  better  off,  as  a  race,  in  their  present 
bondage,  than  they  would  be  if  made  free,  to  remain  here. 
Not  that  they  are  better  off  than  four  millions  of  colored 


134  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

people,  who  had  never  been  slaves,  would  be  in  a  com 
monwealth  by  themselves." 

"  I  thank  you,  Mrs.  North,"  said  I,  "  for  your  clear  and 
correct  statement  of  my  position.  And  now  I  will  take  up 
Mr.  North's  parable  about  the  horses,  and  apply  it  justly. 
Let  hay  and  grass  be  exceedingly  scarce,  and  I  had  rather 
take  my  chance  with  an  owner  and  be  a  horse,  in  a  sta 
ble,  and  at  work,  than  a  horse  roaming  in  search  of  food, 
chased  away  everywhere.  The  comparison  is  between 
horse  and  horse,  and  man  and  man." 

"  You  make  me  think,"  said  Mrs.  North, "  of  an  interest 
ing  passage  in  a  late  magazine,  written  by  a  lady.  She 
was  on  a  voyage  to  Cuba.  She  arrived  at  Nassau.  She 
says,  '  There  were  many  negroes,  together  with  whites 
of  every  grade  ;  and  some  of  our  number,  leaning  over 
the  side,  saw  for  the  first  time  the  raw  material  out  of 
which  Northern  Humanitarians  have  spun  so  fine  a  skein 
of  compassion  and  sympathy.  You  must  allow  me  one 
heretical  whisper,  —  very  small  and  low.  Nassau,  and 
all  we  saw  of  it,  suggested  to  us  the  unwelcome  ques 
tion  whether  compulsory  labor  be  not  better  than  none.' " l 

"  There  is,"  said  I,  "  this  great  question  of  right,  with 
some,  as  to  slavery  :  As  the  State  has  a  right  to  inter 
pose  and  send  vagrant  children  to  school,  has  the  world 
a  right  to  interpose,  in  certain  cases,  and  send  certain 
races  to  labor  for  the  good  of  mankind  ?  This  was  the 
question  which  broke  upon  the  lady's  mind.  It  is  very 
interesting  to  see  the  question  thus  stated,  and  to  notice 
the  graceful  touch  of  apology,  and  of  playfulness,  in  the 
manner  of  stating  it.  There  was  risk,  and  even  peril,  in 
making  the  suggestion,  but,  withal,  some  moral  courage. 
Still  a  lady  may  sometimes  venture  where  it  might  not 
be  safe  for  a  gentleman  to  go. 

1  Atlantic  Monthly,  May,  1859,  p.  604. 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  135 

"  But  the  question  between  us  is  not,  '  Freedom  or  sla 
ver^'  in  the  abstract,  nor,  Whether  it  is  right,  in  any  case, 
to  reduce  a  people  to  slavery ;  but,  What  is  best  for  our 
slaves  ?  All  your  proofs  that  freedom  is  better  than 
slavery  in  the  abstract,  are  nothing  to  the'  point," 

"  It  is  the  foulest  blot  on  our  nation  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  that  we  have  four  millions  of 
human  beings  in  bondage." 

"  Have  you  read  '  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  ? ' "  I  inquired. 

"  Ask  me,"  said  he,  pleasantly,  "  if  I  know  how  to 
read.  Every  lover  of  liberty  and  hater  of  oppression 
has  read  'Uncle  Tom.'" 

"  That  is  very  far  from  being  true,"  said  I ;  "  but  still, 
you  like  Uncle  Tom  as  a  character,  do  you  ?  " 

"  You  astonish  me,"  said  he,  "  by  making  a  question 
about  it.  He  is  the  most  perfect  specimen  of  Christianity 
that  I  ever  heard  of." 

"  Among  the  martyrs,"  said  I,  "  have  you  ever  found 
his  superior  ?  " 

"  No,  Sir ! "  was  his  energetic  answer. 

"  Now,"  said  I,  "  what  made  Uncle  Tom  the  paragon 
of  perfection  ?  " 

"  What  made  him  ?  "  said  he. 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  "  what  made  him  the  model  Christian  ? 
You  do  not  reply,  and  I  will  tell  you.  SLAVERY  MADE 
UNCLE  TOM.  Had  it  not  been  for  slavery,  he  would 
have  been  a  savage  in  Africa,  a  brutish  slave  to  his  fe 
tishes,  living  in  a  jungle,  perhaps ;  and  had  you  stumbled 
upon  him  he  would  very  likely  have  roasted  you  and 
picked  your  bones.  A  system  which  makes  Uncle  Toms 
out  of  African  savages  is  not  an  unmixed  evil." 

"  But,"  said  he,  "  it  makes  Legrees  also." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  Sir,"  said  I,  "  it  does  not  make 
Legrees.  There  are  as  many  Legrees  at  the  North  as  at 


136  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

the  South,  especially  if  we  include  all  the  very  particular 
'  friends  of  the  slave.'  Legree  would  be  Legree  in  Wall 
Street,  or  Fifth  Avenue  ;  Uncle  Tom  would  not  be  Uncle 
Tom  in  the  wilds  of  Africa." 

"  And  so,"  said  he,  "  it  is  right  to  fit  out  ships,  burn  vil 
lages  in  Africa,  steal  the  flying  people,  bestow  them  in 
slave-ships,  and  sell  them  into  hopeless  bondage  !  " 

"  So  you  all  love  to  reason,"  said  I,  "  or  seek  to  force 
that  conclusion  upon  us.  No  such  thing.  If  God  over 
rules  the  evil  doings  of  men,  this  is  no  reason  for  repeat 
ing  the  wrong.  I  am  insisting  that  slavery  as  it  exists  in 
the  South  has  been  a  blessing  to  the  African.  This  does 
not  warrant  you  in  perpetrating  outrages  on  those  who 
are  still  in  Africa. 

"  But  the  result  has  been,  through  the  mercy  of  God  as 
though  we  had  taken  millions  of  degraded  savages  out  of 
Africa,  and  had  made  them  contribute  greatly  to  the  in 
dustrial  interests  of  mankind. 

"  We  have  raised  them  from  heathenish  ignorance  and 
barbarism  to  the  condition  of  intelligent  beings.  Look  at 
them  in  their  churches  and  Sabbath-schools.  Slavery 
has  done  this.  See  the  colored  population  of  Charleston, 
S.  C.,  voluntarily  contributing,  as  they  do,  on  an  average, 
three  dollars  apiece,  annually,  for  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel  at  home  and  abroad.  See  the  meeting-house  of 
the  African  Church  at  Richmond,  Va.,  a  place  selected  for 
public  speakers  from  the  North  to  deliver  their  addresses 
in  it  to  the  citizens  of  Richmond,  because  it  is  more  com 
modious  than  any  other  public  building  in  the  city.  Think 
of  the  membership  of  slaves  in  Christian  Churches  ;  of  the 
multitudes  of  them  who  have  died  in  the  faith  arid  hope 
of  the  Gospel.  Slavery  has  done  this.  The  question  is 
whether  slavery  has  been,  or  is,  such  a  curse,  on  the 
whole,  to  the  African  race,  that  we  must  now  set  free  the 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  137 

whole  colored  population  ?  Please  let  us  keep  to  the 
point.  The  reopening  of  the  slave-trade  is  a  question  by 
itself. 

"  It  seems  that  God  had  chosen  to  redeem  and  save 
large  numbers  of  the  African  race  by  having  them  trans 
ported  to  this  Christian  land.  Philanthropists  would  not 
be  at  the  cost  and  trouble  of  all  this.  God  has,  there 
fore,  used  the  cupidity  of  men  to  accomplish  his  purposes, 
and  he  punishes  the  wicked  agents  of  his  own  benevolent 
schemes.  His  curse  has  for  ages  rested  on  the  African 
race,  and  the  laws  of  nature  have,  to  a  great  degree,  in 
terposed  to  prevent  Christian  efforts  in  their  behalf.  God 
saw  fit  to  change  the  prison-house,  and  prison  yards  and 
shops  of  this  race  from  one  continent  to  another,  and 
New  England  merchantmen,  in  part,  have  been  allowed 
to  be  the  conveyers.  In  the  process  of  transferring  these 
future  subjects  of  civilization  and  Christianity,  vast  mis 
ery  is  endured,  as  in  opening  a  way  by  the  sword  for  the 
execution  of  his  decrees,  great  slaughter  is  the  inevitable 
attendant.  I  look  at  the  whole  subject  of  slavery  in  the 
light  of  God's  providence.  And  I  do  not  see  that  his 
providence  yet  indicates  any  way  for  its  termination  con 
sistent  with  the  interests  of  the  colored  people. 

"As  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  in  this  land,  if  the 
Most  High  has  any  further  purposes  of  mercy  for  the 
African  race  in  connection  with  us,  he  will  not  consult 
vou  nor  me.  He  will  open  districts  of  our  country  for 
fiem  ;  if  my  political  party  refuses  to  be  the  instrument 
in  doing  this,  from  benevolent  motives,  or  from  any  other 
cause,  He  will  make  that  party  to  be  defeated,  it  may  be 
by  a  party  below  us  in  moral  principle,  as  we  view  it. 
This  question  of  slavery,  its  extension  and  continuance, 
is  therefore  among  the  great  problems  of  God's  provi- 


138  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

dence.  I  shall  do  all  that  I  properly  can  to  prevent  it, 
and  to  encourage,  and,  if  called  upon,  to  aid  my  brethren 
now  in  immediate  charge  of  the  slaves,  to  fulfil  their  sol 
emn  trust ;  but  anything  like  impatience  and  passion  at 
the  existence  of  slavery,  I  hold  to  be  a  sin  against  God. 
I  pity  those  good  men  whose  minds  are  so  inflamed  by 
the  consideration  of  individual  cases  of  suffering  as  not 
to  perceive  the  great  and  steadfast  march  of  the  divine 
administration.  Politicians  and  others  who  get  their 
places,  or  their  bread,  by  easy  appeals  to  sympathy  for 
individual  cases  of  suffering,  are  the  causes  of  much 
misplaced  commiseration  and  of  a  low,  uninstructed  view 
of  the  great  interests  involved  in  slavery.  Yet  these  very 
men  who,  for  selfish  purposes,  stir  up  the  passions  of  our 
people,  by  dwelling  on  cases  of  hardship  in  slavery,  are 
greatly  disappointed  when  Napoleon  III.,  at  Villafranca, 
prematurely  terminates  a  war  of  unparalleled  slaughter. 
They  would  have  preferred,  for  the  cause  of  constitu 
tional  liberty  and  for  its  possible  influence  against  the 
Pope,  that  the  fighting  had  continued  a  month  longer  ; 
we  hear  no  pathetic  remonstrances  from  them  on  the 
score  of  the  killed  and  maimed,  the  widows  and  orphans 
and  the  childless,  of  homes  made  desolate,  by  this  addi 
tional  month  of  battle.  Such  is  man,  so  inconsistent,  so 
blinded  by  party  prejudice,  so  ready  to  maintain  that 
which,  in  a  change  of  persons  and  places,  he  will  de 
nounce.  He  will  be  wholly  blinded  by  individual  acts 
of  suffering  to  all  that  is  good  in  a  system  ;  and  again, 
the  good  to  be  effected  by  a  war  will  blind  him  to  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dead  or  mutilated  soldiers,  with 
five  times  that  number  of  bleeding  hearts,  rifled  by  the 
sword  of  their  precious  treasures." 

I  saw  that  I  had  prolonged  my  remarks  to  an  undue 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  139 

length.  We  sat  in  silence  for  a  little  while,  looking  into 
the  fire,  and  listening  to  the  rain  against  the  windows, 
when  Judith  called  Mrs.  North  to  the  door  ;  and,  after 
some  whispering  between  them,  Mrs.  North  said  to  her, 

"  Oh,  bring  them  in ;  our  company  will  excuse  it." 

The  cranberries,  it  seems,  were  not  doing  well  over  the 
fire  in  Judith's  department,  and  she  had  hesitatingly  pro 
posed  that  they  should  be  promoted  to  the  parlor  grate 
where,  after  due  apologies,  they  were  placed.  They  sooi 
began  to  simmer ;  then  one  would  burst,  and  then  another, 
we  pausing  unconsciously  to  hear  them  surrendering  them 
selves  to  their  fate,  while  one  mouth,  at  least,  watered  at 
the  thought  of  the  delicious  dish  which  they  were  to  fur 
nish  ;  the  rich,  ruby  color  of  their  juice  in  the  best  cut- 
glass  tureen,  and  the  added  spoonful,  as  a  reward  for  not 
spilling  a  drop  on  the  table-cloth  the  last  time  they  were 
served,  coming  to  mind,  with  thoughts  of  early  days. 
And  here  I  was  discussing  slavery.  Now,  while  the 
cranberries  were  over  the  fire,  making  one  feel  domestic 
and  also  bringing  back  young  days,  it  was  impossible  to 
be  disputatious,  had  we  been  so  inclined.  The  North 
ern  cranberry-meadow  and  the  Southern  sugar-planta 
tion  seemed  mixed  up  in  my  feelings  on  this  subject, 
qualifying  and  rectifying  each  other.  Perhaps  the  sooth 
ing  presence  of  the  cranberry  saucepan  was  timely ;  for, 
without  any  design,  a  phase  of  our  subject  next  pre 
sented  itself  which  was  not  the  most  agreeable.  I  broke 
the  silence,  and  said,  — 

"  Mr.  North,  what  do  you  think  is  the  mission  of  the 
abolitionists  as  a  party,  and  of  all  who  sympathize  with 
them  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  he,  "  to  abolish  slavery,  to  be  sure.  What 
else  can  it  be  ?  " 


140  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

u  You  are  mistaken,"  said  I.  "  The  real  mission  of 
the  abolitionists,  thus  far,  is,  To  perpetuate  slavery  till 
Providence  has  accomplished  its  plan.  You  know  what 
Southern  synods,  and  general  assemblies,  and  many  of 
the  ablest  men  at  the  South  have  said  about  slavery ; 
how  they  deplored  it,  and  called  upon  Christians  to  seek 
its  extinction.  The  South  would  probably  have  tried  to 
abolish  slavery  ere  this,  if  left  to  themselves.  But  they 
would  have  failed ;  and  Providence  prevented  the  use 
less  effort.  The  influence  of  those  sentiments  which  pre 
vailed  in  the  General  Assembly  of  1818  would  have 
been  to  remove  all  the  objectionable  features  of  slavery, 
at  least,  preparatory  to  its  final  extinction,  if  that  could 
be  reached.  It  looked  as  though  Churches  generally 
would,  in  obedience  to  the  General  Assembly,  have  made 
it,  in  certain  cases,  the  subject  of  discipline.  Abolition 
ism,  however,  began  about  that  time.  It  had  the  effect 
to  make  the  South  defend  themselves  and  slavery  too. 
Providence  saw  that  the  South  was  weary  of  the  system, 
and  wished  to  throw  it  off.  But  the  years  of  the  captivity 
appointed  of  God  had  not  come  to  an  end.  Purposes  of 
mercy  for  the  African  race  had  not  been  accomplished  ; 
the  South  must  be  made  willing  to  hold  these  poor  people 
for  the  '  time,  times,  and  half  a  time,'  ordained  of  God. 
To  encourage  them,  the  God  of  Nature  makes  the  great 
Southern  staple,  cotton,  to  be  in  greater  demand  for  the 
supply  of  the  world ;  the  cotton-gin  is  invented,  and  im 
mediately  the  slaves  are  thereby  assisted  to  retain  that 
hold  upon  the  South  which  was  about  to  be  broken  off. 
All  this  seems  to  me  designed,  as  it  certainly  has  the 
effect,  to  perpetuate  slavery  until  Providence  shall  indi 
cate  measures  for  the  removal  of  the  colored  people 
among  us.  This  may  be  delayed  for  centuries  to  come. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  141 

In  the  mean  time,  we  at  the  North,  by  keeping  up  our 
agitation  of  the  subject,  have  impressed  the  South  with 
the  importance  of  being  united  against  us ;  but  if  any  of 
our  schemes  of  emancipation  had  divided  them,  it  would 
not  have  been  for  the  good  of  the  slaves.  So  the  abo 
litionists  have  been  fulfilling  their  destiny  by  fighting 
against  Providence  to  help  perpetuate  slavery  till  the 
Most  High  shall  disclose  his  will  concerning  it." 

"  And  helped  the  South,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  perpetuate 
violations  of  the  marriage  relation,  and  to  separate  fami 
lies,  and  to  countenance  all  the  sins  in  slavery ! " 

"  Yes,  to  some  degree,"  said  I ;  "  for  should  we  treat 
them  with  common  candor  and  truthfulness,  make  them 
feel  that  we  appreciate  the  perplexities  of  the  subject, 
admit  for  once,  and  act  upon  it,  that  they  are  better  and 
more  competent  '  friends  of  the  slave '  than  we,  it  would 
be  the  surest  way  to  put  a  stop  to  every  evil  in  slavery. 
Now  they  have  little  power  over  a  certain  class  of  men 
among  them,  who,  when  measures  are  proposed  for  the 
relief  of  the  slaves,  raise  the  cry  that  they  are  abolition 
ists,  and  excite  an  odium  which  deters  them  from  doing 
many  things  which  would  otherwise  be  attempted." 

"  They  might  all  certainly  join,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  one 
would  think,  to  prevent  the  violation  of  the  marriage  con 
tract  by  the  slaves,  and  the  sundering  of  the  marriage  tie 
by  the  auctioneer." 

"  Now,"  said  I,  "  there  are  two  allegations,  and  I  will 
answer  them.  As  to  the  violation  of  the  marriage  cov 
enant  by  the  slaves,  are  you  aware  how  many  divorces 
for  the  same  cause  are  granted  in  your  own  state  yearly  ? 
You  will  find,  on  inquiry,  that  '  freedom '  has  nothing  to 
boast  of  in  this  respect.  As  to  the  auctioneer,  and  the 
separation  of  the  marriage  tie  by  him,  how  often  do  you 


142  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

think  that  an  honest  black  man,  for  no  crime,  is  taken 
from  his  wife  and  sold,  or  she  from  him  ?  How  often, 
do  you  suppose,  are  families  divided  and  scattered  at  the 
auction-block  ?  If  you  will  inquire,  you  will  find  that 
the  cases  are  extremely  rare ;  that  in  some  large  districts 
it  has  not  occurred  for  several  years ;  and  that  in  other 
cases,  where  it  has  occurred,,  regard  has  been  had  to  the 
neighborhood  of  the  purchasers,  so  that  members  of  the 
same  families  have  been  within  reach  of  one  another. 
You  seem  to  think  that  a  great  feature,  and  the  most 
common  effect,  of  slavery  is  to  separate  families.  Such 
is  the  general  belief  at  the  North.  Let  me  remind  you 
that  there  is  no  form  or  condition  of  service  in  the  world 
which  has  more  effect  than  slavery  to  keep  families  to 
gether." 

"  Well,"  said  Mrs.  North,  dropping  her  work  in  her 
lap,  "I  never  thought  of  that  before." 

"  Why,"  said  I,  "  where  will  you  find  in  the  Free 
States  husband  and  wife  and  children  living  together  as 
servants  in  the  same  family  ?  " 

Said  Mrs.  North,  "  It  is  rather  uncommon  with  us  to 
find  two  sisters  living  together  as  help  in  a  family.  At 
least,  it  is  always  spoken  of  and  noted  as  pleasant  and 
desirable." 

"  What  would  Northerners  think,"  said  I,  "  of  gathering 
the  old  parents  and  all  the  brothers  and  sisters  of  their 
domestics  together,  in  small  tenements  near  their  own 
dwellings  ?  He  who  should  do  this  would  be  regarded 
as  a  very  great  saint.  So  that  you  may  as  well  say  that 
slavery  is  a  system  by  which  a  serving  class  is  kept  to 
gether  in  families,  as  to  say  that  its  purpose  and  effect  is 
to  break  up  families." 

"  Just  think,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  of  the  serving  class 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  143 

in  our  families  here  at  the  North,  —  how  they  are  sepa 
rated  by  states,  by  oceans,  from  one  another !  " 

"  Be  careful,  Mrs.  North,"  said  I,  "  how  you  even  hint 
at  such  mitigations. in  slavery,  for  you  will  be  denounced 
as  a  '  friend  of  oppression '  if  you  discern  anything  in  the 
system  but  '  villanies.'  You  never  hear  such  a  feature  of 
slavery,  as  that  of  which  we  have  just  spoken,  recognized 
here  at  the  North  by  our  zealous  anti-slavery  people." 

"  Do  you  not  think,"  said  she,  "  that  if  we  were  can 
did  and  less  passionate,  and  viewed  the  subject  as  anti- 
slavery  men  at  the  South  do,  we  should  exert  far  more 
influence  against  slavery?" 

"  If  we  exerted  any,"  I  replied,  "  it  would  be  '  far 
more '  than  we  do  now.  If  we  would  only  cease  to 
1  exert  influence '  in  that  direction,  and  begin  to  learn 
that  the  people  of  the  South  are  as  Christian,  benevo 
lent,  and  good  in  every  respect  as  we,  this  first,  great 
lesson,  which  we  all  need  to  learn,  would  do  us  all  great 
good.  Self-righteousness  is  the  great  characteristic  of 
the  Northern  people  with  regard  to  the  South.  Fifteen 
States  declare  that  they  are  justified  before  God  in  con 
tinuing  the  system  of  slavery.  The  other  States  would 
be  ashamed  to  condemn  those  fifteen  States  for  immoral 
ity  in  the  discussion  of  any  other  subject ;  but  here  they 
assume  that  one  half  of  the  American  nation  is  convicted 
of  crime.  I  take  the  ground  that,  if  the  Churches  and 
the  ministry  of  those  fifteen  States  say,  With  all  the  evils 
of  slavery,  it  is  right  and  best  that  we  should  maintain  it, 
I  will  so  far  yield  my  convictions  as  not  to  feel  that  they 
are  less  righteous  than  I." 

"  Oh,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  but  they  have  been  born  and 
educated  under  the  system.  Of  course  they  must  be 
blinded  by  it,  and  their  moral  sense  perverted." 


144  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  There,"  said  I,  "  Mr.  North,  is  the  '  Northern  Evil ' 
again.  Oh,  what  a  shame  it  is  for  intelligent  people  to 
decry  Southern  Christians  in  this  way,  and  to  erect  their 
own  moral  sense  into  such  self-complacent  superiority  ! 

"  You  will  see  in  your  church  one  excellent  brother, 
whose  heart  is  filled  with  anguish  at  the  thought  of  the 
'  poor  slave.'  One  sits  by  him  who  knows  full  as  much 
on  this  and  on  all  subjects  as  he,  who  feels  that  the  peo 
ple  at  the  South  are  perfectly  qualified  to  manage  this 
subject,  and  that  we  have  no  need  to  interpose.  He 
thinks  that  if  one  wishes  to  be  excited  with  compassion 
at  the  sorrows  and  woes  of  men,  a  short  walk  will  bring 
him  to  certain  abodes  such  as  no  Southern  slave  would 
be  allowed  by  any  human  master  to  inhabit.  If  he  would 
benefit  men  as  a  class,  our  own  sailors  need  all  his  phi 
lanthropy.  But  the  good  anti-slavery  brother  is  pos 
sessed  with  the  idea  that  the  Southern  slave  is  the  imper 
sonation  of  injustice  and  misery,  and  that  those  who  stand 
in  the  relation  of  masters  are  guilty  of  crimes,  daily, 
which  ought  to  shut  them  out  of  the  Church. 

"  I  have  often  thought  that  the  most  appropriate  prayers 
in  our  public  assemblies,  with  regard  to  slavery,  would 
be  petitions  against  Northern  ignorance  and  passion  with 
respect  to  Southern  Christians.  It  is  we  who  most  need 
to  be  prayed  for.  When  I  think  of  those  assemblies  of 
Christians  of  all  denominations  in  the  South,  with  a  cler 
gy  at  their  head  who  have  no  superiors  in  the  world,  and 
then  hear  a  Northern  preacher  indicting  them  before  God 
in  his  prayers,  what  shall  I  say  ?  The  verdict  of  a  cor 
oner's  inquest,  if  it  were  held  over  some  of  his  hearers  at 
such  a  time,  might  almost  be,  Died  of  disgust." 

"  Now  I  desire  to  know,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  if  we  are 
never  to  pray  in  public  about  slavery?  Is  it  not  the 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  145 

great  subject  before  the  country,  and  are  not  all  our  in 
terests  in  Church  and  State  deeply  involved  in  it  ?  " 

"  While  we  believe,"  said  I,  "  that  holding  slaves  is  a 
sin,  I  take  the  ground  that  praying  for  the  Southerners  is 
a  false  impeachment.  When  we  are  rid  of  this  error,  we 
do  not  feel  their  need  of  being  prayed  for  any  more  than 
'all  men,'  for  whom  Paul  says,  *I  will  that  men  pray 
everywhere,'  —  *  lifting  up  holy  hands  without  wrath  or 
doubting.'  Our  *  hands '  must  be  '  holy  '  when  we  lift 
them  up  for  i  all  men,'  including  Southerners  ;  there  must 
be  no  '  wrath '  in  our  prayers,  —  which  I  am  sorry  to  say 
is  too  easily  discerned  in  prayers  against  the  South  ;  and 
there  must  be  no  '  doubting '  in  the  petitioners  whether 
their  feelings  and  motives  are  right  before  God.  There 
is  as  much  in  the  relation  of  officers  and  crews  in  our 
merchant  vessels,  to  say  the  least,  to  enlist  the  prayers 
of  ministers,  as  in  slavery.  But  this  relates  to  ourselves, 
and  has  not  the  enchantment  of  a  distant  sin. 

"  You  must  bring  yourself  to  believe,  Mr.  North,  that 
Southern  hearts  are  in  general  as  humane  and  cultivated 
as  ours.  This,  it  is  true,  is  a  great  demand  upon  a 
Northerner." 

"  But  oh,"  said  he,  (we  happening  to  be  alone  just 
then,)  "  the  cruelty  of  compelling  virtuous  people,  mem 
bers  of  Churches,  to  commit  sin,  under  pain  of  being  sold." 

"  Mr.  North,"  said  I,  "  how  do  you  dare  to  open  your 
lips  on  that  subject,  —  you,  with  myself,  a  member  of  a 
denomination  in  which  men,  eminent  in  our  pulpits,  have 
—  so  many  of  them  of  late  years  —  fallen.  One  would 
think  that  we  would  never  cast  a  stone  at  the  South  on 
that  subject. 

"  Some  among  us  seem  to  think  that  the  power  and  the 
opportunity  to  commit  sin  must  necessarily  be  followed 
7 


146  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

by  criminal  indulgence.  They  do  themselves  no  credit 
in  this  supposition.  They  also  leave  out  of  view  a  natu 
ral  antipathy  which  must  be  overcome,  sense  of  degrada 
tion,  probability  of  detection,  loss  of  character,  conscience, 
and  all  the  moral  restraints  which  are  common  to  men 
everywhere ;  and  they  only  judge  that  all  who  exercise 
authority  over  an  abject  race  must,  as  a  general  thing,  be 
polluted. 

"  As  to  opportunities  for  evil-doing  at  the  South  com 
pared  with  the  North,  no  one  who  walks  the  streets  of  a 
Northern  city,  by  day  or  night,  with  the  ordinary  discern 
ment  of  one  who  sets  himself  to  examine  the  moral  con 
dition  of  a  place,  will  fail  to  see  that  we  need  not  go 
to  the  South  to  find  humiliating  proofs  of  baseness  and 
shame.  There  is  less  solicitation  at  the  South ;  here  it 
is  a  nightly  trade,  without  disguise.  At  the  South  the 
young  must  go  in  search  of  opportunity  ;  here  it  confronts 
them.  The  small  number  of  yellow  children,  in  the  inte 
rior  of  the  Cotton  States,  on  *  lone  plantations,'  is  positive 
proof  against  the  ready  suspicions  and  accusations  of 
Northern  people.  Let  all  be  true  which  is  said  of 
*  yellow  women,'  i  slave-breeders,'  and  every  form  of 
lechery,  he  is  simple  who  does  not  believe  that  the  sta 
tistics  of  a  certain  wickedness  at  the  North  would,  if 
made  as  public  as  difference  of  color  makes  the  same 
statistics  at  the  South,  leave  no  room  for  us  to  arraign 
and  condemn  the  South  in  this  particular.  Their  clergy, 
their  husbands,  their  young  men,  if  they  are  no  better, 
are  no  worse  than  we.  But  there  is  nothing  in  which 
the  self-righteousness  created  by  anti-slavery  views  and 
feelings  is  more  conspicuous  than  in  the  way  in  which  the 
South  is  judged  and  condemned  by  us  with  regard  to  this 
one  sin.  Had  the  pulpits  of  the  South  afforded  such 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  147 

dreadful  instances  of  frailty,  for  the  last  ten  or  fifteen 
years,  as  we  have  had  at  the  North,  what  confirmation 
would  we  have  found  for  our  invectives  against  the  cor 
rupting  and  '  barbarous '  influence  of  slavery  ! 

"  How  the  morbid  fancy  of  a  Northerner  loves  to  gloat 
over  occasional  instances  of  violence  at  the  South,  and  is 
never  employed  in  depicting  scenes  of  betrayal  and  cruel 
ty  which  our  policemen  in  large  cities  could  recount  by 
scores." 

"  I  saw,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  in  a  recent  paper,  that  a  slave 
in  Washington  County,  N.  C.,  was  hanged  by  the  sheriff 
in  the  presence  of  three  thousand  spectators,  for  the  mur 
der  of  a  white  man,  whom  he  shot  with  a  pistol  because 
he  suspected  him  of  undue  familiarity  with  the  wife  of  the 
black  man.  Poor  fellow !  no  doubt  he  swung  for  it  be 
cause  he  was  a  slave.  He  must  let  his  marriage  rights  be 
invaded  by  the  whites,  and  bear  it  in  silence,  or  die." 

Said  I,  "  What  a  perfect  specimen  of  Northern  anti-sla 
very  feeling  and  logic  have  we  in  what  you  now  say.  If  a 
man,  on  suspicion  of  you,  takes  the  law  into  his  hands 
and  shoots  you  with  a  pistol,  does  he  not  deserve  to  die  ? 
He  does,  if  he  is  a  white  man ;  perhaps,  if  he  be  a  slave, 
that  excuses  him !  Even  where  a  man  is  known  to  be 
guilty  of  the  crime  referred  to,  and  the  husband  shoots 
him,  he  is  apt  to  have  a  narrow  escape  from  being  pun 
ished.  As  to  bearing  such  violations  of  one's  rights  in 
silence  under  intimidation,  there  is  no  more  power  in 
intimidation  to  save  a  villain  at  the  South  from  disgrace 
and  abhorrence  in  his  community,  than  at  the  North." 

"  But  he  can  evade  prosecution  under  the  statute,"  said 
Mr.  North,  "  more  easily  at  the  South  than  here." 

"  When  you  have  served  on  the  grand  jury  a  few 
terms,"  said  I,  "you  will  be  more  charitable  toward 


148  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

Southerners.  Human  nature  is  the  same  everywhere. 
It  makes,  where  it  does  not  find,  occasion  for  sin. 

"  Now  you  will  not  understand,  in  all  that  I  have  said, 
that  I  am  pleading  for  slavery,  that  I  desire  to  have  this 
abject  race  among  us,  that  Southerners  are  purer  and 
better  than  we.  We  are  both  under  sin.  We  all  have 
our  temptations  and  trials ;  each  form  of  society  has  its 
own  kind  of  facilities  for  evil ;  but  the  grace  of  God  and 
all  the  influences  which  bear  on  the  formation  and  the 
preservation  of  character,  are  the  same  wherever  Chris 
tianity  prevails." 

"  Well,  after  all,"  said  he,  "  it  must  be  a  semi-barbarous 
state  of  society,  where  such  a  system  is  maintained." 

"  I  shall  have  to  send  you,"  said  I,  "  to  the  <  Hotel  des 
Incurables/  I  think  that  your  judgments  are  more  than 
semi-barbarous.  If  you  please  to  term  even  the  Southern 
negroes  '  semi-barbarous,'  you  may  do  so ;  but  you  are 
bearing  false  witness  against  your  neighbor. 

"  My  dear  friend,"  said  I,  "  sum  up  all  the  evils  of  the 
laboring  classes,  of  foreigners  and  the  lower  orders  of 
society.  Take  their  miseries,  vices,  crimes,  with  all  the 
blessings  of  freedom  and  everything  else.  Get  the  pro 
portion  of  evil  to  the  good.  Remember  that  these  classes 
will  continue  to  exist  among  us.  Then  take  the  slaves, 
the  lower  order  at  the  South,  as  foreigners  are  with  us, 
and  say  if,  on  the  whole,  the  proportion  of  evil  among  the 
slaves  is  any  greater  than  among  the  corresponding 
classes  elsewhere.  Do  not  be  an  optimist.  Acknowledge 
that  society,  in  this  fallen  world,  must  have  elements  of 
evil,  by  reason  at  least  of  imbecility,  want  of  thrift,  mis 
fortune,  and  other  things.  You  will  not  fail  to  see  that 
slavery  with  all  its  evils  is,  under  the  circumstances,  by 
no  means,  the  worst  possible  condition  for  the  colored  peo 
ple." 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  149 

"  Well,"  said  he,  "  I  will  think  of  all  you  have  said.  I 
do  not  wish  to  be  an  ultraist,  nor  to  shut  my  eyes  against 
truth.  You  will  wish  to  go  to  bed ;  there  are  some  further 
points  on  which  I  would  know  your  views,  and  we  will, 
if  you  please,  resume  the  subject  to-morrow." 


150  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

OWNERSHIP  IN  MAN.  —  THE   OLD   TESTAMENT  SLAVERY. 

"  Therefore  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do 
ye  even  so  to  them;  FOR  THIS  is  THE  LAW  AND  THE  PROPHETS." 

HOLY  WRIT. 

THE  rain  still  poured  down  in  the  morning,  making  it 
agreeable  to  us  that  we  had  the  prospect  of  an  unin 
terrupted  forenoon  for  our  conversation. 

So  when  we  found  ourselves  together  again  in  the 
course  of  the  forenoon,  by  the  fire,  we  opened  the  dis 
cussion. 

Mr.  North  inquired  what  I  understood  by  the  term 
"owning  a  fellow-creature." 

"  I  understand  by  it,"  I  replied,  "  a  right  to  use,  and  to 
dispose  of,  the  services  of  another,  wholly  at  my  will. 
That  will  must  be  subject  to  the  whole  law  of  God, 
which  includes  the  golden  rule.  I  do  not  mean  by  it 
that  a  man  owns  the  body  of  a  man  in  such  a  sense  that 
he  can  maim  it  at  will,  or  in  any  way  abuse  it.  Owner 
ship  in  men  is  power  to  use  their  services  and  to  dispose 
of  them,  at  will." 

"  Now,"  said  he,  "  who  gives  you  a  right  to  go  to 
Africa  or  to  a  slave  auction  and  to  say  to  a  human  being, 
*  I  propose  to  own  you.'  How  would  you  like  to  have  a 
black  man  come  to  you  in  a  solitary  place  and  say,  '  My 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  151 

dear  Sir,  I  propose  to  own  you.  Henceforth  your  ser 
vices  are  subject  to  my  will.'  ?  " 

"As  to  Africa,"  said  I,  "and  making  slaves  of  those  who 
are  now  free,  we  cannot  differ.  As  to  the  other  part  of 
your  question,  I  will  carry  the  illustration  a  little  further, 
and  in  doing  so,  will  answer  you  in  part.  How  would 
you  like  to  have  some  Michael  O'Connor  come  to  you 
and  say,  '  Mr.  North,  I  propose  to  hire  you  and  pay  you 
wages  as  my  body-servant,  or  my  ostler.'  Why  should 
you  not  consent  ?  If  you  do  not,  why  should  you  hire 
Mike  himself  to  serve  you  in  either  of  those  capacities  ? 
What  has  become  of  the  golden  rule,  if  you  hire  a  man 
to  do  work  for  you  which  you  would  not  be  hired  to  do  ? 

"  You  are  feasting  with  a  company  of  friends ;  and 
your  domestics,  below,  hear  your  cheerful  talk,  and  feel 
the  wide  difference  between  your  state  and  theirs.  Why 
do  you  not  go  down  and  say,  *  Dear  fellow-creatures,  go 
up  and  take  our  places  at  table,  and  let  us  be  servants '  ? 
Does  the  golden  rule  require  that  ?  Inequalities  in 
human  conditions  are  a  wise  and  benevolent  provision 
for  human  happiness,  so  long  as  men  are  dependent  on 
one  another,  as  they  are  and  ever  must  be.  Some  are 
so  constituted  by  an  all-wise  God  that  they  are  hap 
pier  to  be  in  subordinate  situations.  Mind  is  lord ;  and 
they,  seeing  and  feeling  the  superiority  of  others,  gladly 
attach  themselves  to  them  as  helpers,  to  be  thought  for 
and  protected,  and  to  enjoy  their  approbation.  There  is 
nothing  cruel  in  this,  unless  it  be  cruel  not  to  have  made 
all  men  equal.  There  are  important  influences  grow 
ing  out  of  these  relationships  of  superiors  and  inferiors, 
—  gentleness,  kindness,  benevolence,  in  all  its  forms, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other,  respect,  deference, 
love,  strong  attachments  and  identification  of  interests. 


152  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  As  to  the  remaining  part  of  your  question,  let  me 
ask,  What  nation  or  tribes  are  capable  of  such  bondage  as 
the  Africans  at  home  inflict  and  bear  ?  We  never  had  a 
right  to  go  and  steal  them,  nor  to  encourage  their  captors 
in  their  pillage  and  violent  seizure  of  the  defenceless 
creatures  ;  nor  do  I  think  that  all  the  blessings  which 
multitudes  of  them  have  received,  for  both  worlds,  in  con 
sequence  of  their  transportation  from  Africa,  lessens  the 
guilt  of  slave-traders;  nor  are  these  benefits  any  justifi 
cation  of  the  trade,  nor  do  they  afford  ground  for  its  con 
tinuance.  Nothing  can  justify  it.  Such  is  the  voice  of 
the  human  conscience  everywhere  except  where  covet- 
ousness  or  controversy  prevail. 

"  But  finding  these  colored  people  here,  the  question 
upon  which  you  and  I  differ,  is,  What  is  our  duty  with 
regard  to  them  ? 

"  You  say,  Set  them  all  free.  I  reply,  The  relation  of 
ownership  on  our  part  toward  them  is  best  for  all  con 
cerned.  You  say,  It  is  wrong  in  itself.  To  say  this,  I 
think,  is  to  be  more  righteous  than  God." 

"  Then  you  maintain,"  said  he,  "  that  the  Most  High, 
in  the  Bible,  countenances  all  the  atrocities  of  American 
slavery." 

"  What  a  strange  way,"  said  I,  "  of  arguing,  do  we  very 
generally  find  among  anti-slavery  men,  when  their  feel 
ings  are  enlisted,  as  they  are  so  apt  to  be.  They  take 
unwarrantable,  extreme  inferences  from  what  we  say,  and 
oppose  these  as  logical  answers  to  a  statement  or  argu 
ment.  '  Auction  block  '  and  *  Bunker  Hill,'  are  sufficient 
answers  with  them  to  most  of  our  reasoning  on  this  sub 
ject.  But  let  us  look  at  this  point  in  a  dispassionate 
manner. 

"  But,"  said  I,  "  before  I  begin  I  wish  to  be  distinctly 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  153 

understood  as  holding  this  doctrine ;  namely,  The  Bible 
does  not  justify  us  in  reducing  men  to  bondage  at  our 
will.  God  might  appoint  that  certain  tribes  should  be 
slaves  to  others  ;  but  before  we  proceed  to  reduce  men  to 
slavery,  our  warrant  for  it  must  be  clear. 

"  If,  however,  slavery  is  found  by  a  certain  generation 
among  them,  and  it  is  not  right  and  just  nor  expedient  to 
abolish  it,  may  we  not  safely  ask,  How  did  the  Most 
High  legislate  concerning  slavery  among  the  people  to 
whom  he  gave  a  code  of  laws  from  his  own  lips  ? 

"  Learning  this,  we  must  then  consider  whether  cir 
cumstances  in  our  day  warrant,  or  require,  different  rules 
and  regulations. 

"  But  our  inquiry  into  the  divine  legislation  respecting 
slavery,  will  disclose  some  things  which  draw  largely 
upon  one's  implicit  faith  in  the  divine  goodness ;  and 
if  a  man  is  disposed  to  be  a  sceptic  and  his  anti-slavery 
feelings  are  strong,  here  is  a  stone  on  which,  if  that  anti- 
slavery  man  falls,  he  shall  be  broken,  but  if  it  falls  on 
him,  it  shall  grind  him  to  powder. 

"You  will  acknowledge  this,  if  you  will  allow  me  to 
speak  further  on  this  subject. 

"  Did  you  ever  notice,"  said  I,  "  with  what  words  Christ 
concludes  his  enunciation  of  the  golden  rule  ?  They  are 
a  remarkable  answer  to  our  modern  infidels,  who  im 
pugn  the  Old  Testament  as  far  behind  the  New  in  its 
moral  standard.  After  declaring  that  the  rule  by  which 
we  should  treat  others  is  self-love,  the  Saviour  says,  — 
*  for  this  is  the  Law  and  the  Prophets.'  So  there  was 
nothing  in  the  Law  and  Prophets  inconsistent  with  the 
golden  rule.  The  golden  rule  therefore  marks  the  his 
tory  of  divine  legislation  from  the  beginning ;  and  if  God 
appointed  slavery,  he  ordained  nothing  in  connection  with 
7* 


154  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

it  which  was  inconsistent  with  equal  love  to  one's  self 
and  to  a  neighbor. 

"  This  deserves  to  be  considered  by  those  who,  finding 
slavery  in  the  Old  Testament  appointed  by  God,  begin, 
as  it  were,  to  exculpate  their  Maker  by  saying  that  the 
Hebrews  were  a  rude,  semi-barbarous  people,  and  that  di 
vine  legislation  was  wisely  accommodated  to  their  moral 
capacity.  Now  it  is  singular,  if  this  be  so,  that  the  Mosaic 
•code  should  be  the  basis,  as  it  is,  of  all  good  legislation 
everywhere.  The  effort  to  make  the  Hebrew  people 
and  their  code  appear  inferior,  in  order  to  excuse  slavery, 
is  one  illustration  of  the  direful  effect  which  anti-slavery 
principles  have  had  in  lowering  the  respect  of  many  for 
the  Bible,  and  loosening  its  hold  upon  their  consciences. 
Now  it  is  to  me  a  perfect  relief  on  this  subject  of  slavery 
in  the  Old  Testament,  to  know  that  God  appointed  noth 
ing  in  the  relation  of  his  people  to  men  of  any  class  or 
condition  which  his  people  in  a  change  of  circumstances, 
might  not  be  willing  should  be  administered  to  them.  If 
slavery  was  ordained  of  God  to  the  Hebrews,  it  must, 
therefore,  have  been  benevolent.  If  we  start  with  the 
doctrine  that  '  Slavery  is  the  sum  of  all  villanies,'  no 
wonder  that  we  find  it  necessary  to  use  extenuating  words 
and  a  sort  of  apologetic,  protecting  manner  of  treating 
the  divine  oracles.  After  all  it  is  evidently  hard  work, 
with  many  anti-slavery  men  to  maintain  that  reverence 
for  the  Old  Testament  and  that  confidence  in  God  which 
they  feel  are  required  of  them.  So  they  lay  all  the  re 
sponsibility  of  imperfection  in  the  divine  conduct,  to  the 
*  semi-barbarous  Hebrews  !  '  —  a  people  by  the  way, 
whose  first  leader  combined  in  himself  a  greater  variety, 
and  a  higher  order,  of  talent,  than  any  other  man  in  his 
tory.  As  military  commander,  poet,  historian,  judge, 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  155 

legislator,  who  is  to  be  named  in  comparison  with  the 
man  Moses  ? 

"  We  must  come  to  the  conclusion,"  said  I,  "  that  the 
relation  of  ownership  is  not  only  not  sinful,  but  that  it 
is  in  itself  benevolent,  that  it  had  a  benevolent  object ; 
for  its  origin  was  certainly  benevolent." 

"  What  was  its  origin  ?  "  said  Mrs.  North  ;  "  I  always 
had  a  desire  to  know  how  slavery  first  came  into  exist 
ence." 

"  Blackstone  tells  us,"  I  replied,  "  that  its  origin  was  in 
the  right  of  a  captor  to  commute  the  death  of  his  cap 
tives  with  bondage.  The  laws  of  war  give  the  conqueror 
a  right  to  destroy  his  enemies  ;  if  he  sees  fit  to  spare  their 
lives  in  consideration  of  their  serving  him,  this  is  also  his 
right.  Thus,  we  suppose,  slavery  gained  its  existence. 

"  True,  its  very  nature  partakes  of  our  fallen  condition  ; 
it  is  not  a  paradisiacal  institution  ;  it  is  not  good  in  itself; 
it  is  an  accompaniment  of  the  loss  which  we  have  in 
curred  by  sin.  In  that  light  it  is  proper  to  speak  of  the 
Most  High  as  adapting  his  legislation  to  the  depraved 
condition  of  man  ;  but  that  is  no  more  true  of  slavery 
than  of  redemption ;  everything  in  the  treatment  of  us  by 
the  Almighty  is  an  exponent  of  our  departure  from  our 
first  estate." 

"  Now,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  all  this  is  a  relief  to  me  ; 
for  I  have  always  been  sorely  tried  by  remarks  seem 
ingly  impugning  the  divine  wisdom  and  goodness, 
whenever  slavery  in  the  Bible  has  been  under  discus 
sion." 

"  Please  give  us  an  outline,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  of  the 
Hebrew  legislation  on  this  .subject."  He  handed  me  a 
Bible. 

"  I  will  try  and  not  be  tedious,"  said  I,  "  and  will  repeat 


156  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

to  you  in  few  words  the  principal  points  of  the  Hebrew 
Code,  with  regard  to  involuntary  servitude. 

"  Slavery  is  the  first  thing  named  in  the  law  given  at 
Sinai,  after  the  moral  law  and  a  few  simple  directions  as 
to  altars.  This  is  noticeable.  In  the  twenty-first  chap 
ter  of  Exodus,  and  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Le 
viticus,  we  find  the  Hebrew  slave-code.  The  following 
is  a  summary  of  it :  — 

"  1.  Hebrews  themselves  might  be  bought  and  sold  by 
Hebrews  ;  but  for  six  years  only,  at  farthest.  If  the 
jubilee  year  occurred  at  any  time  during  these  six  years, 
it  cut  short  the  term  of  service. 

"  2.  Hebrew  paupers  were  an  exception  to  this  rule. 
They  could  be  retained  till  the  year  of  jubilee  next  en 
suing. 

"  3.  Hebrew  servants,  married  in  servitude,  if  they  went 
out  free  in  the  seventh,  or  in  the  jubilee  year,  must  go 
out  alone,  leaving  their  wives  which  their  masters  had 
given  them,  and  their  children  by  these  wives,  (if  any,) 
behind  them,  as  their  masters'  possession.  If,  however, 
they  chose  to  remain  with  their  wives  and  children,  the 
ear  of  the  servant  was  bored  with  an  awl  to  the  door 
post,  and  his  servitude  became  perpetual. 

"  4.  Hebrew  servants  might  also,  from  love  to  their 
masters,  in  like  manner  and  by  the  same  ceremony,  be 
come  servants  forever. 

"5.  Strangers  and  sojourners  among  the  Hebrews, 
*  waxing  rich,'  were  allowed  to  buy  Hebrews  who  were 
1  waxen  poor,'  and  who  were  at  liberty  to  sell  them 
selves  to  these  sojourners  or  to  the  family  of  these  stran 
gers.  The  jubilee  year,  however,  terminated  this  servi 
tude.  The  price  of  sale  was  graduated  according  to  the 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  157 

number  of  years  previous  to  the  jubilee  year.  The 
kindred  of  the  servant  had  the  right  of  redeeming  him, 
the  price  being  regulated  in  the  same  way. 

"  6.  In  all  these  cases  in  which  Hebrews  were  bought 
and  sold,  there  were  special  injunctions  that  they  should 
not  be  treated  '  with  rigor,'  the  reason  assigned  by  the 
Most  High  being  substantially  the  same  in  all  cases, 
namely,  '  For  unto  me  the  children  of  Israel  are  ser 
vants  ;  they  are  my  servants  whom  I  brought  forth  out 
of  the  land  of  Egypt :  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.' 

"  7.  Liberal  provision  was  to  be  made  for  the  Hebrew 
servant  at  the  termination  of  his  servitude.  During  his 
term  of  service,  he  was  to  be  regarded  and  treated  '  as 
an  hired  servant  and  a  sojourner.' 

"8.  Bondmen  and  bondmaids,  as  property,  without 
limitation  of  time,  and  transmissible  as  inheritance  to 
children,  might  be  bought  of  surrounding  nations.  The 
children  of  sojourners  also  could  be  thus  acquired.  To 
these  the  seventh  year's  and  the  fiftieth  year's  release 
did  not  apply. 

"  Now,  Mr.  North,"  said  I,  "  let  me  proceed  to  try 
your  faith  somewhat.  I  will  see  whether  your  confidence 
in  divine  revelation  is  sound,  for  nothing  at  the  present 
day  has  overthrown  the  faith  of  many  like  the  manifest 
teachings  of  the  Bible  with  regard  to  slavery.  You  have 
felt  that  the  Hebrew  code  is  better  than  ours,  so  far  as 
it  relates  to  slaves  who  were  Hebrews.  As  to  the  slaves 
from  the  heathen,  we  infer  that  they  met  '  with  rigor,' 
or  at  least  were  liable  to  it ;  for  God  continually  enjoins 
it  upon  the  Hebrews  that  they  shall  not  use  rigor  with 
their  brethren. 

"  Now  let  me  mention  some  things  which  will  try  your 
faith  in  revelation,  if  you  are  an  abolitionist. 


158  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  The  Hebrews  were  allowed  to  sell  their  servants  to 
other  people. 

"  Thus  they  traded  in  flesh  and  blood.  This  was  pro 
hibited  in  the  case  of  a  Hebrew  maid-servant,  whom  a 
man  had  bought  and  had  made -her  his  concubine.  If  she 
did  not  please  him,  it  was  said  that  — '  to  sell  her  unto  a 
strange  nation  he  shall  have  no  power.'  The  inference 
is  that  they  sold  their  Gentile  slaves,  if  they  pleased,  '  to 
a  strange  nation.'  Again.  When  a  father  or  mother 
became  poor,  their  creditor  could  take  their  children  for 
servants.  Thus  you  read :  *  Now  there  cried  a  certain 
woman  of  the  wives  of  the  sons  of  the  prophets  unto 
Elisha  saying,  Thy  servant  my  husband  is  dead,  and 
thou  knowest  that  thy  servant  did  fear  the  Lord ;  and  the 
creditor  is  come  to  take  unto  him  my  two  sons  to  be 
bondmen.'  This  was  according  to  the  law  of  Moses,  in 
the  twenty-fifth  of  Leviticus  ;  '  bondmen,'  however,  mean 
ing  here  a  servant  for  a  term  of  years.  See  also  the 
New  Testament  parable  of  the  unforgiving  servant. 

"  This  was  hard,  it  will  seem  to  you  and  to  all  of  us, 
that  if  one  became  poor  in  Israel,  his  children  could  be 
attached.  Thus  the  idea  of  involuntary  servitude,  where 
no  crime  was,  prevailed  in  the  Theocracy. 

"  But  we  come  now  to  something  which  draws  harder 
upon  our  faith. 

"  We  find  the  Most  High  prescribing,  Exodus  xxi.  20, 
21,  that  a  master  who  kills  his  servant  under  chastise 
ment  shall  be  punished  (but  not  put  to  death)  ;  and  if 
the  servant  survives  a  day  or  two,  the  master  shall  not 
even  be  '  punished '  for  the  death  of  his  slave  ! 

"  The  reason  which  the  Most  High  gives  is  this :  '  For 
he  is  his  money '  / 

"  A   human   being,    '  money ' !      An    immortal    soul, 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  159 

'  money  ' !  God's  image,  '  money ' !  And  this  the  rea 
soning,  these  the  very  words  of  my  Maker  !  Is  it  not 
astonishing,  if  your  principles  are  correct,  that  there  has 
been  no  controversy  for  ages  against  this  ?  and  that  the 
Bible,  with  such  passages  in  it  should  have  retained  its 
hold  on  the  human  mind  ?  '  He  is  his  money '  !  It 
would  have  been  no  different  had  it  read :  '  He  is  his 
cotton.'  You  see  that  the  Most  High  recognized  '  owner 
ship,'  '  property  in  man.'  Why  is  it  said,  '  He  is  his 
money  '  ?  Poole  (Synopsis)  says,  —  '  that  is,  his  pos 
session  bought  with  money  ;  and  therefore  1.  Had  a  power 
to  chastise  him  according  to  his  merit,  which  might  be 
very  great.  2.  Is  sufficiently  punished  with  his  own 
loss.  3.  May  be  presumed  not  to  have  done  this  pur 
posely  or  maliciously.' 

"  Either  and  all  of  which  explanations,  or  any  other 
which  can  be  given,  only  bring  more  clearly  to  view  the 
idea  of  '  money  '  as  a  reason  why  the  master  is  not  to  be 
punished,  for  causing  the  death  of  a  slave  by  whipping, 
if  the  slave  happens  to  continue  a  day  or  two,  no  matter 
under  what  mutilations  and  sufferings. 

"  Furthermore.  We  find  the  Most  High  decreeing 
perpetual  bondage  in  certain  cases,  and  more  than  all, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  forcible  separation  of  husband  and 
wife  among  slaves.  Let  me  turn  to  Exodus  xxi.  and 
read :  — 

" '  1.  Now  these  are  the  judgments  which  thou  shalt  set  be 
fore  them. 

"  '  2.  If  thou  buy  an  Hebrew  servant,  six  years  he  shall 
serve  :  and  in  the  seventh  he  shall  go  out  free  for  nothing. 

"  '  3.  If  he  came  in  by  himself,  he  shall  go  out  by  himself: 
if  he  were  married,  then  his  wife  shall  go  out  with  him. 

" '  4.  If  his  master  have  given  him  a  wife  and  she  have 


160  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

borne  him  sons  or  daughters,  the  wife  and  her  children  shall  be 
her  master's,  and  he  shall  go  out  by  himself.' 

"  I  have  not  finished  my  reading,"  said  I  ;  "  but  what 
do  you  say  to  that,  Mr.  North  ?  " 
"  Read  on,"  said  he. 

"  '  5.  And  if  the  servant  shall  plainly  say,  I  love  my  master, 
my  wife,  and  my  children,  I  will  not  go  out  free  : 

" '  6.  Then  his  master  shall  bring  him  unto  the  judges,  he 
shall  also  bring  him  to  the  door,  or  unto  the  door-post,  and  his 
master  shall  bore  his  ear  through  with  an  awl,  and  he  shall 
serve  him  forever.' 

"  God  decreed,  therefore,  that  the  marriage  of  a  slave 
in  bondage,  in  those  days,  was  dissoluble,  as  no  other 
marriage  was.  Divorces  among  the  Hebrews,  allowed 
for  the  hardness  of  their  hearts,  were  not  parallel  to  the 
forcible  separation  of  a  slave  from  his  wife  under  the  hard 
necessity  of  choice  between  perpetual  bondage  with  a 
wife,  or  freedom  without  her.  The  merciful  God  who 
kindly  enacted,  '  No  man  shall  take  the  nether  nor  the 
upper  millstone  to  pledge  :  for  he  taketh  a  man's  life  to 
pledge,'  and  that  a  garment  pawned  should  be  restored 
before  sundown,  that  wages  should  not  be  withheld  over 
night,  yes,  the  God  who  legislated  about  bird's-nests 
ordained  the  dissolution  of  the  marriage  tie  between 
slaves  in  certain  cases,  unless  the  slave  husband  was 
willing  for  his  wife's  sake,  to  be  a  slave  forever  ! 

"  What  do  you  say  to  this,  Mr.  North  ?  "  I  asked  again. 

Said  Mrs.  North,  "  I  begin  to  see  the  origin  and  cause 
of  infidelity  among  the  abolitionists." 

"  Tell  me,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  how  you  view  it." 

"  On  stating  this,  once,"  said  I,  "  in  a  public  meeting, 
I  raised  a  clamor.  Three  or  four  men  sprung  to  their 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  1G1 

V 

feet,  and  one  of  them,  who  first  caught  the  chairman's 
eye,  cried  out,  his  face  turning  red,  his  eyes  starting  from 
their  sockets,  his  fist  clenched,  *  I  demand  of  the  gentle 
man  whether  he  means  to  approve  of  all  the  abominations 
of  American  slavery  !  Is  he  in  favor  of  separating  hus 
bands  and  wives,  parents  and  children  ?  Let  us  know  it, 
Sir,  if  it  be  so.  No  wonder  that  strong  anti-slavery  men 
turn  infidels  when  they  hear  Christian  men  defending 
American  slavery  from  the  Bible.  No  wonder  that  they 
say,  "  The  times  demand,  and  we  must  have,  an  anti- 
slavery  constitution,  an  anti-slavery  Bible,  and  an  anti-sla 
very  God."  Mr.  Moderator,  will  the  gentleman  answer 
my  question,  —  Do  you  mean  to  approve  all  the  atroci 
ties  of  American  slavery,  on  the  ground  that  the  Bible 
countenances  them  ? ' 

"  I  was  never  more  calm  in  my  life.  I  replied,  '  Mr. 
Chairman,  taking  for  my  warrant  an  inspired  piece  of 
advice  as  to  the  best  way  of  answering  a  man  according 
to  his  folly,  it  would  be  just,  should  I  reply  to  the  gentle 
man's  question,  Yes,  I  do.  But  the  gentleman,  I  per 
ceive,  is  too  much  excited  to  hear  me.' 

"  He  had  flung  himself  round  in  his  seat,  put  his  elbow 
on  the  back  of  it,  and  his  hand  through  his  hair ;  he  then 
flung  himself  round  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  put  his 
arm  and  hand  as  before,  and  he  blew  his  nose  with  a 
sound  like  a  trombone. 

"  I  then  said,  '  Mr.  Chairman,  if  all  that  the  gentleman 
meant  to  ask  was,  Do  you  find  any  countenance  under 
any  circumstances,  for  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  in 
the  divine  legation  of  Moses,  —  and  this  was  all  which, 
as  a  fair  man,  not  carried  away  by  a  gust  of  passion,  he 
should  have  asked  me,  —  my  answer  was  correct  and 
proper.  If  he  wished  to  know  my  views  of  what  is  right 


162  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

and  proper  as  to  the  marriage  relation  of  our  slaves,  he 
should  have  put  the  question  in  a  different  shape.  But 
first,  Sir/  said  I,  'if  he  dislikes  the  twenty-first  chapter  of 
Exodus,  his  controversy  must  be  with  his  God,  not  with 
me.  Sinai  was,  let  me  remind  him,  more  of  a  place 
than  Bunker  Hill.  I  am  not  a  friend  of  "  oppression " 
any  more  than  the  gentleman ;  but  I  trust  that  had  I 
lived  in  Israel,  I  should  never  have  thought  of  being 
more  humane  than  my  Maker.' 

"  I  then  proceeded  to  say  that  (as  before  remarked  to 
you)  we  are  not  warranted  by  the  Bible  to  make  men 
slaves  when  we  please ;  nor,  if  slavery  exists,  are  we 
commanded  to  adopt  the  rules  and  regulations  of  Hebrew 
slavery. 

"  But  we  do  learn  from  the  Bible  that  property  in  man 
is  not  in  itself  sinful,  —  not  even  to  say  of  a  man,  *  He 
is  my  money.' 

"  Were  it  intrinsically  wrong,  God  would  not  have  leg 
islated  about  it  in  such  ways  ;  for  granting,  if  you  please, 
the  untenable  distinction  about  his  *  not  appointing '  sla 
very,  but  i  finding  it  in  existence  '  and  legislating  for  it, 
what  necessity  could  there  have  been  for  making  such  a 
law  as  that  relating  to  the  boring  of  the  ear,  rather  than 
giving  the  slave  his  wife  and  children  and  suffering  them 
all  to  go  free  ? 

"  No,  Mr.  North,"  said  I,  continuing  our  conversation, 
"  I  cannot  oppose  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  as  in 
itself  sinful ;  for  then  I  become  more  righteous  than  God. 
But  I  must  inquire  whether  it  is  right,  in  each  given 
case,  to  reduce  men  to  bondage  :  shall  that  be,  for  exam 
ple,  the  mode  in  which  prisoners  of  war  shall  be  disposed 
of?  or  a  subjugated  people?  or  criminals?  or,  in  certain 
cases,  debtors  ?  In  doing  so,  there  is  no  intrinsic  sin  ; 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  163 

the  act  itself,  under  the  circumstances,  may  be  exceed 
ingly  sinful ;  but  the  relation  of  ownership  is  not  neces 
sarily  a  sin.  This,  I  hold,  is  all  that  can  be  deduced  from 
the  Bible  in  favor  of  slavery :  The  relationjs  not  in  itself 
sinful." 

"  But,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  we  sinned  in  stealing  these 
people  from  Africa ;  all  sin  should  be  immediately  for 
saken  ;  therefore,  set  the  slaves  free  at  once." 

I  replied,  "  Let  us  apply  that  principle.  You  and  I, 
and  a  large  company  of  passengers,  are  in  a  British  ship, 
approaching  our  coast.  We  find  out,  all  at  once,  that 
the  crew  and  half  of  the  passengers  stole  the  ship.  We 
gain  the  ascendency  ;  we  can  do  as  we  please.  Now,  as 
all  sin  must  be  repented  of  at  once,  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
passengers  and  crew  to  put  the  ship  about,  and  deliver  it  to 
the  owners  in  Glasgow  !  Perhaps  we  should  not  think  it 
best  to  put  in  force  the  '  ruat  ccehim '  doctrine,  especially 
if  we  had  had  some  '  ruat  ccelum '  storms,  and  it  was  late 
in  the  season.  But  then  we  should  actually  be  enjoying 
the  stolen  property  —  the  ship  and  its  comforts  —  for  sev 
eral  days,  with  the  belief  that  benevolence  and  justice  to 
all  concerned  required  us  to  reach  the  end  of  the  voyage 
before  we  took  measures  to  perform  that  justice,  which, 
before,  would  have  been  practical  folly. 

"  Now,  please,  do  not  require  this  illustration  to  go  on 
all  fours.  All  that  I  mean  is  this  :  A  right  thing  may 
be  wrong,  if  done  unseasonably,  or  in  disregard  of  cir 
cumstances  which  have  supervened. 

"  But  to  go  a  little  further,  and  beyond  mere  expe 
diency  :  Can  you  see  no  difference  between  buying 
slaves,  and  making  men  slaves  ?  While  it  would  be 
wicked  for  you  to  reduce  people  to  slavery,  is  that  the 
same  as  becoming  owners  to  those  who  are  already  in 


164  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

slavery  ?  In  one  case,  you  could  not  apply  the  golden 
rule  ;  in  the  other,  the  golden  rule  would  absolutely  com 
pel  you,  in  many  instances,  to  buy  slaves.  Go  to  almost 
any  place  where  slaves  are  sold,  and  they  will  come  to 
you,  if  they  like  your  looks,  and,  by  all  the  arts  of  per 
suasion,  entreat  you  to  become  their  master.  Having 
succeeded,  step  behind  the  scenes,  if  you  can,  and  hear 
them  exulting  that  they  '  fetched  more '  than  this  or  that 
man.  Is  there  no  difference  between  this  and  reducing 
free  people  to  slavery  ?  " 

"  Say  yes,  husband,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  or  I  must  say 
it  for  you." 

"  So  that,  let  me  add,"  said  I,  "  in  opposing  slavery,  I 
am  necessarily  confined  to  the  evils  and  abuses  commit 
ted  in  the  relationship  of  master.  But,  even  in  doing 
this,  why  should  I  be  meddlesome  ?  We  have  a  most 
offensive  air  and  manner  in  our  behavior  towards  South 
erners,  in  connection  with  their  duties  as  masters.  It 
is  perfectly  disgusting.  I  may  oppose  slavery,  on  the 
grounds  of  political  economy  or  for  national  reasons. 
But  if  I  mix  up  with  it  wrathful  opposition  to  the  sin, 
so  called,  or  the  unrighteousness  of  holding  property  in 
man,  it  has  no  countenance  in  the  Bible.  If  I  speak  of 
it  publicly,  as  a  system  fraught  with  evil,  I  must  discrim 
inate  ;  or  they  whom  I  would  influence,  knowing  that  I 
am  mistaken,  will  regard  me  as  an  infatuated  enemy, 
who  will  effect  more  injury  than  I  can  repair.  As  to 
Mr.  Jefferson's  testimony,  there  are  as  good  and  con 
scientious  men  at  the  South  in  our  day  as  Thomas  Jef 
ferson.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  as  worthy  a  witness  in  all 
respects." 

"Now  tell  us,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "your  sober  con 
victions,  apart  from  this  Northern  controversy,  about 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  1G5 

that  twenty-first  chapter  of  Exodus,  where  God  directs 
that  slaves,  in  certain  cases,  shall  be  slaves  forever ;  and, 
moreover,  in  certain  cases,  that  slave  husbands  may  have 
their  wives  and  children  withheld  from  them,  and  the 
husbands  leave  them  forever.  How  do  you  reconcile  this 
with  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God  ?  " 

I  said  to  her,  "  To  make  the  case  fully  appear,  before 
we  converse  upon  it,  hear  this  passage,  Leviticus  xxv. 
44-46  :  —  '  Both  thy  bondmen,  and  thy  bondmaids,  which 
thou  shalt  have,  shall  be  of  the  heathen  that  are  round 
about  you  ;  of  them  shall  ye  buy  bondmen  and  bond 
maids.'  So,  in  the  next  verses,  '  The  children  of  the 
strangers  that  do  sojourn  among  you,  of  them  shall  ye 
buy,  and  of  their  families  that  are  with  you,  which  they 
begat  in  your  land  ;  and  they  shall  be  your  possession  : 
And  ye  shall  take  them  as  an  inheritance  for  your  chil 
dren  after  you,  to  inherit  them  for  a  possession  ;  they 
shall  be  your  bondmen  forever  ;  but  over  your  brethren, 
the  children  of  Israel,  ye  shall  not  rule  one  over  another 
with  rigor.' 

"  Here,  and  in  all  the  divine  legislation  on  this  sub 
ject,  a  distinction  is  made  between  Hebrews  who  became 
slaves,  and  slaves  who  were  foreigners,  or  of  foreign  ex 
traction,  though  resident  in  Israel.  Slaves  of  Hebrew 
extraction  might  go  free  after  six  years,  and  upon  the 
death  of  the  owner ;  and  in  every  jubilee  year  they  must 
all  return  to  freedom,  and  be  free  from  every  disability  by 
reason  of  bondage,  except  where  the  ear  was  bored. 

"  Not  so  with  the  slaves  of  foreign  extraction  ;  nor 
even  with  the  Hebrew  whose  ear  was  bored,  provided 
his  wife  was  given  him  in  slavery,  and  he  had  elected  to 
live  with  her  rather  than  be  free.  Not  even  upon  the 
death  of  the  owner  could  such  slaves  be  manumitted,  as 


166  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

was  the  case  ordinarily  with  regard  to  Hebrew  slaves ; 
but  property  in  these  Gentile  slaves,  and  in  Hebrew- 
slaves  reduced  to  the  same  condition,  God  ordained 
should  be  an  'inheritance,'  passing  down  forever  from 
father  to  child. 

"  No  jubilee  trumpet  was  to  cheer  their  hearts.  Think 
what  the  jubilee  morning  must  have  been  to  those  slaves 
in  hopeless  bondage,  if  bondage  were  necessarily  such  as 
many  fancy.  Our  abolitionists  represent  the  bells  and 
guns  of  our  Fourth  of  July  to  be  a  hideous  mockery  in 
the  ears  of  the  slaves  ;  and  multitudes  of  our  good  peo 
ple  ludicrously  fancy  them  as  most  miserable  on  that 
day,  by  the  contrast  of  their  enslaved  condition  with  our 
boasted  Independence.  Let  us  borrow  this  fancy,  and 
apply  it  to  the  Hebrew  slave. 

"  The  jubilee  trumpets,  and  all  the  joyous  scenes  of  the 
fiftieth  year  in  Israel,  caused  multitudes  of  slaves  in  Is 
rael,  we  will  suppose,  to  reflect,  This  Jehovah,  God  of 
Israel,  has  doomed  us  to  hopeless  bondage.  We  are 
guilty  of  having  been  born  so  many  degrees  south  or 
north,  east  or  west,  of  these  Hebrews.  We,  by  God's 
providence,  are  Gentiles.  Our  chiefs  sold  us,  and  these 
Hebrews  bought  us.  We  were  betrayed  ;  we  were 
driven  out  of  our  homes  ;  unjust  wars  were  made  upon 
us,  to  make  us  captives,  that  we  might  be  sold.  And 
*  the  Lord's  people '  bought  us,  by  his  special  edict  (Lev. 
xxv.  44).  Our  brother-servants,  unfortunate  Hebrews,  get 
released  in  the  jubilee  year,  except  these  poor  creatures 
who  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  married  in  slavery,  and, 
not  being  willing  to  be  divorced,  had  their  ears  fastened, 
with  the  ignominious  '  awl,'  to  their  master's  door-post. 
God  could  have  ordained  that  they,  with  their  wives  and 
children,  and  we,  with  ours,  should  have  release  in  the 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  167 

fiftieth  year.  But,  no  !  our  bondage  is  forever,  and  so  is 
theirs  ;  and  our  children  and  their  children  are  to  be 
servants  forever.  But  we  hold  it  to  be  a  self-evident 
truth  that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal,  and  have  an 
inalienable  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness.  Slavery  is  the  sum  of  all  villanies.  Our  .master's 
will  is  our  law ;  we  are  subject  to  his  passions  ;  we  are 
chattels  ;  we  '  are  his  money.'  This  is  the  language  of 
your  God, —  the  God  whom  you  worship  ;  and  not  only 
so,  but  you  circumcise  us  to  worship  Him ! 

"  Some  benevolent  Levite,  jealous  for  the  character  of 
his  Maker,  replies,  l  But  God  did  not  institute  slavery  ; 
He  focmd  it  in  existence,  and  he  only  legislates  about  it, 
and  regulates  it.' 

"  A  thousand  groans  are  the  prelude  to  the  withering  an 
swer  which  the  slaves  make  to  this  apology  for  oppression. 

" '  He  broke  your  bonds,  it  seems,'  they  cry, '  in  Egypt, 
and  in  the  Red  Sea.  Did  He  "find  slavery"  on  the 
opposite  shore  of  the  Red  Sea?  Why  did  he  not 
merely  "  legislate  for  it,  and  regulate  it  ?  "  No,  He  en 
acted  it.  How  dare  you  apologize  for  your  God  with 
such  a  miserable  pretext  ?  He  made  the  ordinance  sepa 
rating  a  husband  from  wife  and  children,  unless  the 
husband  would  submit  to  the  indignity  of  having  his  ear 
bored  and  to  the  doom  of  perpetual  bondage,  in  case  his 
wife  was  a  Gentile.  If  he  goes  away,  he  must  leave  his 
wife  and  children.  Great  indulgence  have  you  in  multi 
plying  wives  ;  that  is  winked  at  "  for  the  hardness  of 
your  hearts ; "  but  the  poor  Hebrew  must  abandon  his 
wife  and  family  if  he  chooses  freedom  !  They  are  his 
master's  "property,"  "his  money,"  and  God  gave  the 
servant  these  children,  knowing  that  they  would  be  the 
"  property  "  of  another,  and  that  he  would  have  no  un- 


168  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

encumbered  right  to  them ;  and  down  through  all  ages 
they  and  their  descendants  must  be  servants.  And  now 
you  tell  us,  "  God  did  not  institute  "  this  !  He  only  "  found 
it !  "  He  "  regulated  it !  "  Come,  blow  up  your  trumpet, 
reverend  Levite !  Go,  worship  the  God  of  whom  you  feel 
half  ashamed.  Do  not  ask  us  to  worship  and  love  a 
Being  who  is  bound  by  the  laws  of  fate  so  that  he  can 
not  do  otherwise,  if  he  would,  than  make  one  of  us  a 
slave  forever,  while  the  man  who  grinds  with  me  at  the 
same  mill,  goes  with  his  wife  and  children,  forever  free  ! ' " 

"  Those  remarks  have  the  true  Boston  tone,"  said  Mrs. 
North. 

"Yes,"  said  I,  "there  were  brave  men  before  Aga 
memnon,  Horace  tells  us.  There  is  slavery  forever," 
said  I,  "or  the  separation  of  husband  and  wife,  father 
and  children,  unless  the  man  would  be  a  slave  forever. 
What  *  partings '  there  must  have  been  !  What  strug 
gles  in  those  who  concluded  to  take  the  fatal  '  awl ' 
through  their  ears,  before  they  could  make  up  their 
minds  to  be  slaves  forever.  See  the  hardship  of  the 
case.  If  the  man  '  loves  his  wife  and  children,'  he  may 
be  a  slave ;  that  love  would  make  him  spend  and  be 
spent  for  them  in  freedom,  in  his  humble  home,  amid 
the  sweets  of  liberty ;  but  no  ;  if  he  loves  his  wife  he 
must  take  the  bitter  draught  of  slavery  with  his  love. 
But  if  he  hates  her  and  his  children,  he  may  be  free ! 
What  a  bounty  on  conjugal  fickleness,  on  unnatural  treat 
ment  of  offspring ! " 

"  Was  there  no  Canada  ?  "  said  Mrs.  North,  biting  off 
her  thread.  "  O,  I  recollect;  Hagar  went  there.  I 
wonder  if  the  angel  who  remanded  her  was  removed 
from  office,  on  his  return  to  heaven." 

"  Come,  wife,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  there  is  such  a  thing 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  169 

as  being  converted  too  much.  Please,  Sir,  will  you  an 
swer  the  question  as  to  the  consistency  of  all  this  with 
the  divine  wisdom  and  goodness  ? " 

"  That,"  said  I,  "  is  not  the  question  which  you  wish 
to  ask." 

"  I  do  not  understand  you,"  said  he ;  "  please  to  ex 
plain." 

"You  wish  to  ask,"  said  I,  "how  I  reconcile  these 
things  with  your  notions  of  wisdom  and  benevolence." 

"  Why,"  said  he,  "  I  have  my  ideas  of  divine  wisdom 
and  goodness,  and  I  wish  to  make  these  things  square 
with  them." 

"And  that,"  said  I,  "is  just  the  rock  on  which  you  all 
split.  Your  ideas  of  the  divine  goodness  must  be  based 
on  a  complete  view  of  the  revealed  character  and  con 
duct  of  God.  But  you  and  your  friends  say,  *  this  and 
that  ought  to  be,  or  ought  not  to  be,'  and  you  try  your 
Maker  by  that  measure.  Now  I  say,  'he  that  re- 
proveth  God,  let  him  answer  it.'  Are  not  the  things 
which  I  have  quoted,  parts  of  divine  revelation,  as  much 
as  the  flood  and  the  passover  ?  " 

"I  see  that  they  are,"  said  Mr.  North. 

"  Do  you  believe  that  God  is  a  spirit  infinite,  eternal, 
unchangeable,  in  his  being,  wisdom,  power,  holiness, 
justice,  goodness,  and  truth  ?  " 

"I  do,"  said  he. 

"You  believe  this  notwithstanding  the  apostasy,  the 
destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  the  flood,  and  the 
extirpation  of  the  Canaanites." 

"  I  do,"  said  he,  "  so  long  as  I  receive  the  Bible  as  the 
Word  of  God." 

"I  think,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "that  the  loss  of  the 
'  Central  America '  with  her  four  hundred  passengers, 
8 


170  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

tries  my  faith  in  God  full  as  much  as  a  heathen's  having 
his  ear  bored  to  spend  his  days  with  his  wife  and  children 
among  God's  covenant  people." 

"  Then  you  do  not  worship  the  Goddess  of  Liberty,  Mrs. 
North,"  said  I.  —  "  'Art  thou  called  being  a  servant  ?  Care 
not  for  it.  But  if  thou  mayest  be  made  free,  use  it 
rather.' " 

"  That,"  said  she,  "  seems  to  express  my  idea  about 
bondage  and  freedom.  Of  course  it  is  not,  theoretically, 
a  blessing  to  be  a  slave.  It  may  be,  practically,  to  some. 
But  what  strikes  me  oftentimes  is  the  utter  inability  of 
an  abolitionist  to  say  to  a  slave,  under  any  circumstan 
ces,  '  Care  not  for  it.'  His  doctrine,  rather,  is,  'Art  thou 
called  being  a  servant  ?  If  thou  hast  a  Sharpe's  rifle,  or 
a  John  Brown's  pike,  use  it  rather.'  Or,  *  Art  thou  called 
being  a  servant  ?  If  thou  canst  run  for  Canada,  use  it 
rather.'  Paul  had  not  an  abolitionist  mind,  that  is  very 
clear.  But,"  she  continued,  "  do  relieve  my  husband  and 
enlighten  me  also,  by  giving  us  your  views  about  the  Old 
Testament  slavery,  which  I  presume  you  can  do  without 
seeming  to  arraign  the  character  of  God." 

I  replied,  "  This  is  a  sinful  race,  and  we  are  treated 
as  such.  Slavery  is  one  of  God's  chastisements.  In 
stead  of  destroying  every  wicked  nation  by  war,  pesti 
lence,  or  famine,  he  grants  some  of  them  a  reprieve,  and 
commutes  their  punishment  from  death  to  bondage. 
Those  whom  he  allowed  to  be  slaves  to  his  people 
Israel  were  highly  favored ;  they  enjoyed  a  blessing 
which  came  to  them  disguised  by  the  sable  cloud  of 
servitude  ;  but  in  their  endless  happiness  many  of  them 
will  bless  God  for  the  bondage  which  joined  them  to 
the  nation  of  Israel. 

"  I  look  upon  our  slaves  as  being  here  by  a  special 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  171 

design  of  Providence,  for  some  great  purpose,  to  be  dis 
closed  at  the  right  time.  Unless  I  take  this  view  of 
it,  I  am  embarrassed  and  greatly  troubled ;  '  perplexed, 
but  not  in  despair.'  The  great  design  of  Providence 
in  no  wise  abates  the  sin  of  those  who  brought  the  slaves 
here,  nor  does  it  warrant  us  in  getting  more  of  them. 
While  this  is  true,  I  cannot  resist  the  thought  that  God 
has  a  controversy  with  this  black  race  which  is  not  yet 
finished.  I  believe  that  God  withholds  from  them  a 
spirit  and  temper  suited  for  freedom  till  he  shall  have 
finished  his  marvellous  designs.  His  destiny  with  the 
Jew,  as  a  nation,  to  the  present  day,  is  another  illus 
tration  of  his  mysterious  providence  with  regard  to  a 
people. 

"As  to  the  enactment  which  made  the  Hebrew  ser 
vant  a  slave  for  life,  thus  dooming  even  one  of  the  cove 
nant  people  to  perpetual  bondage,  if  he  had  married  in 
slavery,  I  see  in  it  several  things  most  clearly. 

"  You  will  have  noticed  that  in  every  case  in  which  a 
Hebrew  was  made  a  servant,  poverty  was  the  ground 
of  it.  *  If  thy  brother  be  waxen  poor,'  he  could  sell  him 
self,  either  to  a  Hebrew  or  to  a  resident  alien.  He  and 
his  children  could  also  be  taken  for  debt.  This  seems 
to  us  oppressive. 

"  Let  a  family  among  us  be  reduced,  from  any  cause, 
to  a  condition  in  which  they  cannot  maintain  themselves, 
and  what  follows  ?  The  children  find  employment,  some 
of  them  in  families,  in  various  kinds  of  domestic  service. 
Indented  apprenticeships  in  this  commonwealth  are  with 
in  the  memory  of  all  who  are  forty  or  fifty  years  of  age. 
We  remember  the  very  frequent  advertisements :  '  One 
cent  reward.  Kan  away  from  the  subscriber,  an  indent 
ed  apprentice/  etc.  The  descriptions  of  such  fugitives, 


172  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

all  for  the  sake  of  absolving  the  master  from  liability  for 
the  absconding  boy,  and  sometimes  the  hunt  that  was 
made,  with  dogs  to  scent  his  tracks,  when  his  return  was 
desired,  are  far  within  the  memory  of  the  oldest  inhab 
itant. 

"  In  Israel,  this  descent  of  a  family  from  a  prosperous 
to  a  decayed  state,  and  the  consequent  servitude,  were 
used  by  the  Most  High  to  cultivate  some  of  the  best  feel 
ings  of  our  nature.  It  touched  the  finest  sensibilities  of 
the  soul.  Let  me  read  from  the  fifteenth  of  Deuteron 
omy  :  — 

"  '  And  if  thy  brother,  an  Hebrew  man  or  an  Hebrew 
woman,  be  sold  unto  thee,  and  serve  thee  six  years,  then  in 
the  seventh  year  thou  shalt  let  him  go  free  from  thee. 

" '  And  when  thou  sendest  him  out  free  from  thee,  thou  slialt 
not  let  him  go  away  empty. 

"  '  Thou  shalt  furnish  him  liberally  out  of  thy  flock,  and  out 
of  thy  floor,  and  out  of  thy  wine-press  :  of  that  wherewith  the 
Lord  thy  God  hath  blessed  thee  thou  shalt  give  unto  him.  And 
thou  shalt  remember  that  thou  wast  a  bondman  in  the  land  of 
Egypt,  and  the  Lord  thy  God  redeemed  thee :  therefore  I 
command  thee  this  thing  to-day. 

"  '  And  if  it  shall  be,  if  he  say  unto  thee,  I  will  not  go  away 
from  thee  ;  because  he  loveth  thee  and  thine  house,  because  he 
is  well  with  thee, 

"  '  Then  thou  shalt  take  an  awl  and  thrust  it  through  his  ear 
unto  the  door,  and  he  shall  be  thy  servant  forever.  And  also 
with  thy  maid-servant  thou  shalt  do  likewise. 

"  '  It  shall  not  seem  hard  unto  thee  when  thou  sendest  him 
away  free  from  thee  :  for  lie  hath  been  worth  a  doubled  hired 
servant  to  thee,  in  serving  thee  six  years ;  and  the  Lord  thy 
God  shall  bless  thee  in  all  that  thou  doest.' 

"  Is  not  this  very  beautiful  and  touching,  Mrs.  North  ?  " 
She  said  nothing,  but  hid  her  face  in  her  little  babe's 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  173 

neck,  pretending  to  kiss  it.     But  Mr.  North  wiped  his 
eyes.     "  There  is  not  much  barbarism  in  that,"  said  he. 

"The  golden  rule,"  said  I;  "for  this  is  the  law  and 
the  prophets. 

"The  people  to  whom  these  touching  precepts  were 
given  by  the  Most  High,  and  who  were  susceptible  to 
these  finest  appeals,  are,  as  we  have  said,  sometimes 
represented  as  a  semi-barbarous  people,  so  gross  that  God 
was  obliged  to  let  them  hold  slaves  !  Now,  could  any 
thing  be  more  civilizing,  refining,  elevating,  than  such 
relationships  as  this  limited  servitude  of  poor  Hebrews 
created  ?  What  scenes  there  must  have  been  oftentimes, 
when  the  six  years  were  out,  and  the  servant  was  about 
to  depart,  laden  with  gifts !  And  what  a  scene  when, 
with  strong  attachment  to  the  family,  the  servant  de 
clined  to  be  free,  and  went  to  the  door-post  to  have  his 
ear  pierced  with  the  awl,  to  be  a  servant,  and  not  only 
so,  but  to  be  an  inheritance  forever  ! 

"  Is  this  '  the  sum  of  all  villanies,'  Mr.  North  ?  "  said 
I.  "  Yet  it  is  '  slavery.'  *  Auction-blocks,'  '  whippings,' 
'  roastings,'  '  separations  of  families,'  are  not  (  slavery.' 
They  are  its  abuses  ;  slavery  can  exist  when  they  cease. 
I  pray  you,  is  such  slavery  as  the  God  of  the  Hebrews . 
appointed,  in  such  cases  as  these,  'forever,'  an  unmiti 
gated  curse  ? 

"  Now,"  said  I,  "  go  through  our  Southern  country, 
and  you  will  find  in  every  city,  town,  and  village  just 
such  relationships  between  the  whites  and  the  blacks  as 
must  have  existed  where  these  Hebrew  laws  had  effect. 
Think  of  the  little  slave-babe,  and  the  Southern  lady's 
letter,  which  have  given  occasion  to  all  our  conversation. 
The  Gospel,  as  it  subdues  and  softens  the  human  heart, 


174  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

will  make  the  relationship  of  involuntary  servitude  every 
where  to  be  after  this  pattern.  Instead  of  exciting  ha 
tred  and  jealousy,  and  provoking  war  between  the  whites 
and  blacks,  I  am  for  bringing  all  the  influences  of  the 
Gospel  to  bear  upon  the  hearts  of  the  white  population, 
to  convert  them  into  such  masters  as  God  enjoined  the 
Hebrews  to  be,  and  such  as  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles 
enjoined  upon  Gentile  slave-holders  as  their  models. 
And  I  am  filled  with  sorrow  and  astonishment  as  I  see 
some  of  the  very  best  and  most  beloved  men  among  us 
at  the  North  withholding  missionaries  and  tracts  from  the 
Southern  country,  and  —  as  Gustavus's  aunt  said  some 
of  these  do  —  calling  it  l  standing  up  for  Jesus  ! ' 

"  Now,"  said  I,  "  if  such  were  the  injunctions  of  the 
Most  High  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  Hebrews 
should  treat  their  Hebrew  slaves,  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
such  a  habit  with  regard  to  them  would  serve  greatly  to 
mitigate  the  sorrows  of  bondage  on  the  part  of  Gentile 
slaves.  And  thus  the  curse  of  slavery,  like  sin,  and  even 
death,  is  made,  under  the  influences  of  religion,  a  means 
of  improvement,  a  "source  of  blessing.  Let  but  the  sun 
shine  on  a  pile  of  cloud,  and  what  folds  of  beauty  and 
deep  banks  of  snowy  whiteness  does  it  set  forth,  and,  at 
the  close  of  day,  all  the  exquisite  tints  which  make  the 
artist  despair  are  flung  profusely  upon  that  mass  of  va 
por  which  but  for  the  sun  were  a  heap  of  sable  cloud. 

"  The  minister,"  said  I,  "  who,  Hattie  tells  us,  classed 
'  Abraham  the  slave-holder '  with  the  '  murderer,'  and  the 
'  liar  and  swearer,'  knew  not  what  he  did.  People  who 
laugh  and  titter  at  the  'patriarchal  institution,'  need  to 
peruse  the  laws  of  Moses  again,  with  a  spirit  akin  to  their 
beautiful  tone  ;  and  those  who  say  that  to  hold  a  fellow- 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  175 

man  as  property  is  '  sin,'  are  not  '  wiser  than  Daniel,'  but 
they  make  themselves  wiser  than  God. 

"  All  who  sustain  the  relationship  of  owner  to  a  human 
being,"  said  I,  udo  well  to  read  these  injunctions  of  the 
Most  High,  as  very  many  of  them  do,  applying  them  to 
themselves.  And  it  is  also  profitable  to  read  how  that  a 
violation  of  these  very  slave-laws  was,  in  after  years,  one 
great  cause  of  the  divine  wrath  upon  the  Hebrews. 
You  will  find,  in  the  thirty-fourth  of  Jeremiah,  that,  not 
content  with  having  Gentile  slaves,  the  Hebrews  violated 
the  law  requiring  them  to  release  each  his  Hebrew  slaves 
once  in  seven  years. 

" '  I  made  a  covenant  with  your  fathers,'  God  says,  *  in 
the  day  that  I  brought  them  forth  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  saying,  At  the  end  of  seven  years  let  ye  go  every 
man  his  brother  an  Hebrew  which  hath  been  sold  unto 
thee.  But  ye  turned  and  polluted  my  name,  and  caused 
every  man  his  servant  to  return,  and  brought  them  unto 
subjection.  Ye  have  not  hearkened  unto  me  in  pro 
claiming  a  liberty  every  one  to  his  brother ;  —  behold, 
I  proclaim  a  liberty  for  you,  saith  the  Lord,  to  the  sword, 
to  the  pestilence,  and  to  the  famine.' 

"  Thus  it  is  evident  that  the  relation  of  master  and 
servant  was  originally  ordained  and  instituted  by  God  as 
a  benevolent  arrangement  to  all  concerned,  —  not  '  winked 
at,'  or  '  suffered,'  like  polygamy,  but  ordained,  —  that  it 
was  full  of  blessings  to  all  who  fulfilled  the  duties  of  the 
relation  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  institution  ;  and,  more 
over,  it  is  true  that  there  are  few  curses  which  will  be 
more  intolerable  than  they  will  suffer  who  make  use  of 
their  fellow-men,  in  the  image  of  God,  for  the  purposes 
of  selfishness  and  sin ;  while  those  who  feel  their  accoun- 
tableness  in  this  relation,  and  discharge  it  in  the  spirit  of 


176  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

the  Bible,  will  find  their  hearts  refined  and  ennobled,  and 
the  relationship  will  be,  to  all  concerned,  a  source  of 
blessings  whose  influences  will  bring  peace  to  their  souls 
when  the  grave  of  the  slave  and  that  of  his  owner  are 
looking  up  into  the  same  heavens  from  the  common 
earth." 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  177 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE    TENURE. 

"  One  part,  one  little  part,  we  dimly  scan 
Through  the  dark  medium  of  life's  fevering  dream  ; 
Yet  dare  arraign  the  whole  stupendous  plan 
If  but  that  little  part  incongruous  seem  ; 
Nor  is  that  part,  perhaps,  what  mortals  deem  ; 
Oft  from  apparent  ill  our  blessings  rise."  —  BEATTIE,  Minstrel. 

MR.  North  then  said,  "  Let  us  change  the  subject  a 
little.  Please  to  tell  us  why,  in  your  view,  any 
slave  who  is  so  disposed  may  not  run  away.  Would  you 
not  do  so,  if  you  were  a  slave,  and  were  oppressed,  or 
thought  that  you  could. mend  your  condition?  Where 
did  my  master  get  his  right  and  title  to  me  ?  God  did 
not  institute  American  slavery  as  he  did  slavery  among 
the  Hebrews.  If  I  were  a  slave  to  certain  masters, 
South  or  North,  I  should  probably  run  away  at  all  haz 
ards.  I  should  not  stop  to  debate  the  morality  of  the 
act.  No  human  being  would,  in  his  heart  blame  me.  It 
would  be  human  nature,  resisting  under  the  infliction  of 
pain.  We  catch  hold  of  a  dentist's  hand  when  he  is  draw 
ing  a  tooth.  Perhaps  there  may  be  found  some  moral 
law  against  doing  so !  " 

"  But  we  are  apt,"  said  I,  "  to  take  these  exceptional 
cases,  and  make  a  rule  that  includes  them  and  all  others. 
I  have  been  present  when  intelligent  gentlemen,  North- 
8* 


178  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

erners  and  Southerners,  have  discussed  this  subject  in 
the  most  friendly  manner,  though  with  great  earnestness. 
Once  I  remember  we  spent  an  evening  discussing  the 
subject.  I  will,  if  you  please,  tell  you  about  the  conver 
sation. 

"  I  must  take  you,  then,  to  an  old  mansion  at  the  South, 
around  which,  and  at  such  a  distance  from  each  other  as 
to  reveal  a  fine  prospect,  stood  a  growth  of  noble  elms, 
a  lawn  spreading  itself  out  before  the  house,  and  the 
large  hall,  or  entry,  serving  for  a  tea-room,  where  seven 
or  eight  gentlemen,  and  as  many  ladies  were  assembled. 

"  A  Southern  physician,  who  had  no  slaves,  took  the 
ground  that  all  the  slaves  had  a  right  to  walk  off  when 
ever  they  pleased.  He  did  not  see  why  we  should  hold 
them  in  bondage  rather  than  they  us,  so  far  as  right  and 
justice  were  concerned.  Some  of  the  slave-holders  were 
evidently  much  troubled  in  their  thoughts,  and  did  not 
speak  strongly.  My  own  feelings  at  first  went  with  the 
physician  and  with  his  arguments  ;  but  I  saw  that  he  was 
not  very  clear,  nor  deep,  and  his  friends  who  partly 
yielded  to  him,  seemed  to  do  so  rather  under  the  influ 
ence  of  conscientious  feelings,  than  from  any  very  well 
defined  principles.  This  is  the  case  with  not  a  few  at 
the  South,  and  it  was  very  common  in  Thomas  Jefferson's 
days.  But  the  large  majority,  who  were  of  the  contrary 
opinion,  got  the  advantage  in  the  argument,  and  it  seemed 
to  me  went  far  toward  convincing  the  physician,  as  they 
did  me,  that  he  was  wrong. 

"  The  company  all  seemed  to  look  toward  a  judge  who 
was  present,  to  open  the  discussion  with  a  statement  of 
his  views.  He  did  so  by  saying,  for  substance,  as  fol 
lows  :  — 

" '  I  will  take  it  for  granted,'  said  he,  '  that  we  are 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  179 

agreed  as  to  the  unlawfulness  of  the  slave-trade,  past  and 
present.  We  find  the  blacks  here,  as  we  come  upon  the 
stage.  "We  are  born  into  this  relationship.  It  is  an 
existing  form  of  government  in  the  Slaye  States. 

" '  Ownership  in  man  is  not  contrary  to  the  will  of  God. 
I  also  find  it  written  that  "  Canaan  shall  be  a  servant. 
Hear  these  words  of  inspiration  :  "  Cursed  be  Canaan  ; 
a  servant  of  servants  shall  he  be  unto  his  brethren.  And 
he  said,  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Shem ;  and  Canaan 
shall  be  his  servant.  God  shall  enlarge  Japheth,  and  he 
shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem  ;  and  Canaan  shall  be 
his  servant."  As  the  Japhetic  race  is  to  dwell  in  the 
tents  of  Shem,  for  example,  England  occupying  India, 
so  I  believe  the  black  race  is  under  the  divine  sentence 
of  servitude.  Moreover,  being  perfectly  convinced  of  the 
wrongfulness  and  the  infinite  mischief  to  all  concerned  of 
the  forcible  liberation  of  our  slaves,  I  am  assisted  in  set 
tling,  in  my  own  mind,  the  question  as  to  the  right  of 
individual  slaves  to  escape  from  service,  and  our  right  to 
continue  in  this  relationship,  conforming  ourselves  in  it 
always  to  the  golden  rule. 

"  *  If  it  be  the  right  of  one,  under  ordinary  circum 
stances,  to  depart,  it  is  the  right  of  all.  But  the  govern 
ment  under  which  they  live,  in  this  commonwealth,  rec 
ognizes  slavery.  The  constitution  and  the  general  gov 
ernment  protect  us  in  maintaining  it.  The  right  of  our 
servants  to  leave  us  at  pleasure,  which  could  not  of  course 
be  done  without  violence,  on  both  sides,  implies  the  right 
of  insurrection.  It  is  impossible  to  define  the  cases  in 
which  insurrection  is  justifiable,  but  the  general  rule  is 
that  it  is  wrong.  Government  is  a  divine  ordinance ; 
men  cannot  capriciously  overthrow  or  change  it,  at  every 
turn  of  affairs  which  proves  burdensome  or  even  oppres- 


180  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

sive.  God  is  jealous  to  maintain  human  government  as 
an  important  element  in  his  own  administration.  Men 
justly  in  authority,  or  established  in  it  by  time,  or  by  con 
sent,  or  by  necessity,  or  by  expediency,  may  properly 
feel  that  they  are  God's  vicegerents.  He  is  on  their 
side  ;  a  parent,  a  teacher,  a  commander,  —  in  short,  he  who 
rules,  is,  as  it  were,  dispensing  a  law  of  the  divine  gov 
ernment,  as  truly  as  though  he  directed  a  force  in  nature. 
Hence,  to  disturb  existing  government  is,  in  the  sight  of 
God,  a  heinous  offence,  unless  circumstances  plainly  jus 
tify  a  revolution ;  otherwise,  one  might  as  well  think  to 
interfere  with  impunity  and  change  the  equinoxes,  or  the 
laws  of  refraction.  It  is  well  to  consider  what  forms  of 
government,  and  what  forms  of  oppression  under  them, 
existed,  when  that  divine  word  was  written  :  "  Let  every 
soul  be  subject  unto  the  higher  powers.  For  there  is  no 
power  but  of  God :  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of 
God.  Whosoever  therefore  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth 
the  ordinance  of  God  ;  and  they  that  resist  shall  receive 
to  themselves  damnation."  This  was  written  in  view  of 
the  throne  of  the  Caesars. 

"  '  But  it  is  very  clear  that  when  a  people  are  in  a  con 
dition  to  establish  and  maintain  another  form  of  govern 
ment,  there  is  no  sin  in  their  turning  themselves  into  a  new 
condition.  In  doing  so,  government,  God's  ordinance, 
evolves  itself  under  a  new  form,  and  provided  it  is,  really, 
government,  and  not  anarchy,  no  sin  may  have  been  com 
mitted  by  the  insurrection,  or  revolution,  as  an  act.  The 
result  proved  that  government  still  existed,  potentially, 
and  was  only  changing  its  shape  and  adapting  itself  to 
the  circumstances  of  the  people.  If  a  man  or  body  of 
men  assert  that  things  among  them  are  ready  for  such 
new  evolutions,  and  so  undertake  to  bring  them  about, 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  181 

they  do  it  at  their  peril,  and  failing,  they  are  indictable 
for  treason ;  they  may  be  true  patriots,  they  may  be  con 
scientious  men  ;  the  sympathies  of  many  good  people  may 
be  with  them,  but  they  have  sinned  against  the  great  law 
which  protects  mankind  from  anarchy. 

" '  To  apply  this/  said  the  Judge,  '  to  our  subject,  — 
When  the  time  comes  that  the  blacks  can  truly  say,  "  We 
are  now  your  equals  in  all  that  is  necessary  to  constitute 
a  civil  state,  and  we  propose  to  take  the  government  of 
this  part  of  the  country  into  our  hands,"  we  should  still 
make  several  objections,  which  would  be  valid.  The 
Constitutions  of  the  States  and  of  the  United  States  must 
be  changed  before  that  can  be  done,  and  we  will  pre 
sume  that  this  would  involve  a  revolution.  Moreover, 
this  country  belongs  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  with  which 
foreigners  of  kindred  stocks  have  intermingled,  and  they 
and  we  object  to  the  presence  of  a  black  race  as  possess 
ors  of  some  of  the  states  of  the  Union,  even  if  it  were 
constitutional.  We  do  not  propose  to  abandon  our  right 
and  title  to  the  soil,  without  a  civil  war,  which  would 
probably  result  in  the  extermination  of  one  or  the  other 
party.  If  you  are  able  to  leave  us  at  pleasure,  the  proper 
way  will  be  to  do  it  peaceably,  and  on  just  principles,  to 
be  agreed  upon  between  us. 

"  '  No  such  exigency  as  this,'  said  the  Judge,  '  is  possi 
ble.  It  would  be  prevented  or  anticipated,  and  relief 
would  be  obtained  while  the  necessity  was  on  the  increase 
and  before  it  reached  a  solemn  crisis. 

"  '  One  of  three  ways  will,  in  my  opinion,'  said  he, 
*  bring  a  solution  to  this  problem  of  slavery. 

"  '  One  is,  the  insurrection  of  the  slaves,  the  massacre 
of  the  whites,  and  the  forcible  seizure  and  possession  of 
power  by  the  blacks  throughout  the  South.  This  would 


182  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

be  a  scene  such  as  the  earth  has  never  witnessed.  I  have 
no  fear  that  it  can  ever  happen.  But,'  said  he,  address 
ing  me,  '  I  presume  that  I  know,  Sir,  how  your  people  in 
the  Free  States,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  think  on  this 
point.  I  will  speak,  by-and-by,  of  the  other  two  ways 
in  which  slavery  may  find  its  great  result.  One,  I  say, 
is,  by  insurrection  and  then  the  extermination  of  the  black 
race  ;  for  that  would  surely  follow  their  temporary  suc 
cess  if  I  can  trust  my  apprehensions  of  the  subject.' 

" '  Please,  sir,'  said  I,  'let  me  hear  what  you  think  is 
1  very  considerably '  the  sentiment  at  the  North  on  this 
subject  of  insurrection.' 

"  *  I  presume  sir,'  said  he,  '  if  the  slaves  should,  some 
night,  take  possession  of  us,  and  demand  a  universal 
manumission,  and  we  should  refuse,  and  fire  and  sword 
and  pillage  and  all  manner  of  violence  should  ensue,  and 
our  persons  and  property  should  be  at  their  will,  vast 
multitudes  of  your  people,  including  clergymen,  would 
exclaim  that  the  day  of  God's  righteous  vengeance  had 
come,  and  they  would  say,  Amen.' 

" '  So  we  interpret  Thomas  Jefferson's  idea,'  said  I. 

" '  I  think,  Sir,'  said  he,  '  that  very  many  reasonable 
people  of  the  North  are  of  opinion  that  all  the  attributes 
of  God  are  against  any  such  procedure. 

"  *  In  the  large  sense  in  which  nations  speak  to  each 
other  when  they  are  asserting  their  rights,  there  is  no 
objection  to  the  first  clause  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  ;  but  when  you  come  to  the  people  of  a  state, 
and  one  portion  of  that  people  rise  and  assert  their  right 
to  break  up  the  constitution  of  things  under  which  they 
live,  there  is  no  more  pertinency  in  that  clause  in  the 
Declaration  than  there  would  be  in  giving  us  the  reason 
for  a  revolution  that  all  men  are  not  far  from  five  or  six 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  183 

feet  high.  What  they  say  may  be  true  in  the  abstract, 
but  it  does  not  prove  that  men,  having  come  into  a  state 
of  society,  involuntarily,  if  you  please,  have  all  the  free 
dom  and  equality  which  they  would  have,  if  they  were 
each  an  independent  savage  in  the  wilderness.  Society 
is  God's  ordinance,  not  a  compact.  We  have,  all  of  us, 
lost  some  of  our  freedom  and  equality  in  the  social  state  ; 
now  how  far  is  it  right  that  the  blacks,  being  here,  no 
matter  how  or  why,  should  lose  some  of  theirs  ?  and  how 
far  is  it  right  that  we  should  take  and  keep  some  of  it 
from  them,  whether  for  the  good  of  all  concerned,  or  for 
the  good  of  ourselves,  their  civil  superiors?  —  whose 
welfare,  it  may  be  observed,  will  continually  affect 
theirs.' 

"  The  Judge  said  that  he  believed  that  God  had,  in  his 
mysterious  providence,  and  of  his  sovereign  pleasure, 
making  use  of  the  cupidity  of  white  men,  placed  these 
blacks  here  in  connection  with  us  for  their  good  as 
a  race,  and  for  the  welfare  of  the  world.  He  said  that 
his  mind  could  feel  no  peace  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
unless  he  viewed  it  in  this  light.  In  connection  with  the 
great  industrial  and  commercial  interests  of  our  globe,  and 
as  an  indispensable  element  in  the  supply  of  human. wants, 
this  abject  race  had  been  transported  from  their  savage 
life  in  Africa,  and  had  been  made  immensely  useful  to 
the  whole  civilized  world.  '  We  agree,  as  I  have  said/  he 
continued,  '  as  to  the  immorality  of  those  who  brought 
them  here  ;  but  he  is  not  fit  to  reason  on  this  subject, 
being  destitute  of  all  proper  notions  with  regard  to  di 
vine  providence,  who  does  not  see  in  the  results  of  sla 
very,  both  as  to  the  civilized  world  arid  to  negroes  them 
selves,  a  wise,  benevolent,  and  an  Almighty  Hand.  Here 
my  mind  gets  relief  in  contemplating  this  subject,  not  in 


184  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

abstract  reasoning,  not  in  logical  premises  and  deductions, 
but  by  resting  in  Providence.     There  are  mysteries  in  it, 

—  as  truly  so  as  in  the  human  apostasy,  origin  of  evil, 
permission  of  sin,  which  confound  my  reasonings  as  to  the 
benevolence  of  God  ;  in  which,  however,  I,  nevertheless, 
maintain  my  firm  belief.     Here  was  the  great  defect  in 
Mr.  Jefferson's  views  of  slavery.     In  the  highest  Chris 
tian  sense,  he  was  not  qualified  to  understand  this  sub 
ject  ;  he  reasoned  like  one  who  did  not  take  into  view 
the  providence  and  the  purposes  of  God,  even  while  he 
was  saying  what  he  did  of  there  being  "  no  attribute  in  the 
Almighty  that  would  take  part  with  us  "  in  favor  of  sla 
very.     Standing  as  I  do  by  this  providential  view  of  the 
great  subject,  the  assailants  of  slavery  at  the  North  seem 
to  me,  some  of  them,  almost  insane,  and  others,  even  minis 
ters  of  the  Gospel,  shall  I  say  it  ?  more  than  unchristian  ; 

—  there  is  a  sort  of  blind,  wild,  French  Jacobinical  athe 
ism  in  their  feeling  and  behavior ;  while  as  to  the  rest, 
good  people,  they  are  misled  by  what  Mr.  Webster,  in 
one  of  his  speeches  in  the  Senate,  called  "  the  constant 
rub-a-dub  of  the  press,"  —  "  no  drum-head,"  he  says,  "  in 
the  longest  day's  march,  having  been   more  incessantly 
beaten  than  the  feeling  of  the  public  in  certain  parts  of 
the  North."     I  cannot  reason  with  these  men,'  continued 
the  Judge,  '  for  I  confess,  at  once,  that  I  cannot  demon 
strate,  either  by  logic  or  by  mathematics,  a  modern  quit 
claim  or  warranty  in  holding  slaves.     In  combating  their 
illogical  and  unscriptural  positions,  I  seem  to  them  to  be 
an  advocate  of  the  divine  right  of  oppression,  —  which  I 
am  not.     That  it  is  best,  however,  and  that  it  is  right, 
for  this  relation  to  continue  until  God  shall  manifest  some 
purpose  to  terminate  it  consistently  with  the  good  of  all 
concerned,  I  am  perfectly  convinced  and  satisfied.     I  be- 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  185 

lieve  that  it  has  reference  to  the  great  plan  of  mercy 
toward  our  world,  and  that  when  the  object  is  accom 
plished,  the  providence  of  God  will,  in  some  way,  make 
it  known.  It  may  be  the  case,  no  candid,  man  and  be 
liever  in  revelation  and  divine  providence  will  deny  it  to 
be  possible,  that  this  dispensation  with  regard  to  this 
colored  race  will  continue  for  long  ages  to  come,  in  the 
form  of  bondage.  That  they  are  now  under  a  curse, 
and  have  been  so  for  centuries,  is  apparent.  When  the 
curse  is  to  be  repealed,  God  only  knows.  I  like  to  cher 
ish  the  idea  that  some  development  is  to  be  made  of  im 
mense  sources  of  wealth  in  Africa,  that  we  have  an  em 
bryo  nation  in  the  midst  of  us,  whom  God  has  been  edu 
cating  for  a  great  enterprise  on  that  continent,  and  when, 
like  California  and  Australia,  the  voice  of  the  Lord  shall 
shake  the  wilderness  of  Africa,  and  open  its  doors,  it 
may  appear  that  American  slavery  has  been  the  school 
in  which  God  has  been  preparing  a  people  to  take  it  into 
their  possession. 

"'EMIGRATION,  then,'  said  he,  'is  the  second  of  the 
three  ways  in  which  this  problem  of  slavery  may  have 
its  solution. 

"  *  In  preparation  for  this,  I  say,  God  may  keep  these 
Africans  here  much  longer.  He  may  need  more  territory 
on  which  to  educate  still  larger  numbers ;  and  we  may 
see  Him  extending  slavery  still  further  in  our  land  and 
on  our  continent.  So  that  there  may  be  one  other  way 
in  which  the  purposes  of  God  will  manifest  themselves 
with  regard  to  the  colored  race  here,  and  that  is  by  EX 
TENSION. 

" '  It  may  be  that  still  greater  portions  of  this  land  and 
continent  are  to  be  used,  for  ages  to  come,  in  the  multipli 
cation  of  the  black  race.  I  feel  entirely  calm  with  regard 


186  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

to  the  subject,  believing  that  God  has  a  plan  in  all  this, 
and  that  it  is  wise  and  benevolent  toward  all  who  fear 
Him.  While  our  relation  to  this  people  remains,  the  law 
of  love,  the  golden  rule,  must  preside  over  it.  That  does 
not  require  us  to  place  the  blacks  on  a  level  with  us  in 
our  parlors,  nor  in  our  halls  of  legislation ;  and  there  may 
be  disabilities  properly  attaching  to  them  which,  though 
they  seem  hard,  are  the  inevitable  consequence  of  a  de 
pendent,  inferior  condition.  All  this,  however,  has  a 
benign  effect  upon  us,  if  we  will  but  act  in  a  Christian 
manner,  to  make  us  gentle,  kind,  generous;  and  when 
this  is  the  case,  no  state  of  society  is  happier  than 
ours.  Let  Jacobinical  principles,  such  as  some  of  our 
Northern  brethren  inculcate,  prevail  here,  and  they  at 
once  destroy  this  benevolent  relation.  This  relation  will 
improve  under  the  influence  of  the  Gospel ;  it  has  wonder 
fully  improved  since  Jefferson's  day ;  and  though  the 
time  may  be  long  deferred,  we  shall  no  doubt  see  this 
colored  race  fulfilling  some  great  purpose  in  the  earth. 
I  trust  that  our  Northern  friends  will  not  precipitate 
things  and  destroy  both  whites  and  blacks  ;  for  a  servile 
war  would  be  one  of  extermination.  Many  of  the  North 
ern  people  I  fear  would  acquiesce  in  it,  provided  espe 
cially,  that  we  should  be  the  exterminated  party.  This  is 
clear,  if  words  and  actions  are  to  be  fairly  interpreted.' 

" *  The  colored  people  here,  as  a  race,'  said  a  planter, 
'are  under  obligations  to  us  as  partakers  in  our  civiliza 
tion.  No  matter,  for  the  present,  how  their  ancestors 
came  here ;  —  that  does  not  at  all  affect  their  present  ob 
ligations  to  us  for  benefits  received.  Now  it  is  not  a 
matter  of  course  that,  having  been  thus  benefited  by  us, 
they  are  at  liberty  to  go  away  when  they  please.  This 
we  assert  respecting  them  as  a  whole.  Are  not  the  blacks, 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  187 

as  a  race,  so  indebted  to  us  that  we  ought  to  be  consulted 
as  to  the  time  and  manner  of  their  departure  ?  We  say 
that  they  are.  They  do  not  morally  possess  the  right, 
we  think,  to  sever  the  relation  when  they  please.' 

"  Said  an  elderly,  venerable  man,  *  A  white  woman  in 
the  cars,  in  Pennsylvania,  begged  me  to  hold  her  infant 
child  for  her,  while  she  fetched  something  for  it.  She 
ran  off,  leaving  the  child  to  me.  My  wife  and  I  took  the 
child  home,  and  have  been  at  pains  and  expense  with  it. 
I  question  the  child's  right  to  say,  whenever  it  pleases, 
Sir,  I  propose  to  leave  you.  I  have  invested  a  good  deal 
in  him,  have  increased  his  value  by  his  being  with  me, 
and  he  has  no  right  to  run  off  with  it.' 

"'But,'  said  the  physician,  'how  long  should  you  feel 
that  you  have  a  right  to  his  services  ? ' 

" '  I  will  answer  that,'  said  the  gentleman,  '  if  you  will 
say  whether  my  general  principle  be  correct.  Have  I, 
or  have  I  not  acquired  just  what  all  intelligent  slave 
holders  call  "  property  "  in  that  youth,  that  is,  a  right  to 
his  services,  —  not  dominion  over  his  soul,  nor  a  right  to 
abuse  him,  nor  in  any  way  to  injure  him,  but  to  use  his 
services  r'  Have  I  not  acquired  that  right  ? ' 

"  *  I  think  you  have,'  said  the  physician,  '  but  with  cer 
tain  limitations.' 

"  'The  limitations,'  said  Mr.  W.,  'certainly  are  not  the 
wishes,  nor  caprices,  nor  the  inclinations,  of  the  boy ;  — 
c!o  you  think  so?' 

" '  I  agree  with  you,'  said  he. 

" '  That  is  all  I  contend  for,'  said  Mr.  W. 

" '  But/  said  the  physician,  '  where  is  your  title-deed 
from  your  Maker  to  own  these  fellow-creatures  ?  Trace 
their  history  back,  and  they  are  here  by  fraud  and  vio 
lence.' 


188  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  '  Thank  you,  Sir,'  said  Mr.  W.,  '  that  is  just  the  case 
with  my  Penn.  I  came  into  possession  of  him  through 
fraud  and  violence !  I  did  not  sin  when  he  was  thrown 
upon  my  hands ;  though  I  confess  I  said,  he  was  —  what 
we  call  slavery  —  an  incubus.  My  right  and  title  to  the 
boy  I  have  never  been  able  to  discover  in  any  handwrit 
ing;  the  mother,  surely,  had  no  right  to  impose  the  child 
upon  me ;  Providence,  however,  placed  it  in  my  hand.  I 
might  have  given  it  immediate  emancipation  through  the 
window,  or  at  the  next  stopping  place ;  or,  I  might  have 
left  the  child  on  its  mother's  vacant  seat,  declining  the 
trust ;  but  I  felt  disposed  to  do  as  I  have  done.' 

" '  Now,'  said  the  physician,  '  will  you  please  tell  me, 
Sir,  how  long  you  feel  at  liberty  to  possess  this  boy  as  a 
satisfaction  to  you  for  your  pains  and  expense  ? ' 

"  '  In  the  first  place,'  said  Mr.  W.,  '  I  have  a  right  to 
transfer  my  guardianship  over  him  to  another,  if  circum 
stances  make  it  necessary.  In  doing  so,  I  must  be  gov 
erned  not  by  selfish  motives,  but  by  a  benevolent  regard 
to  his  welfare,  allowing  that  he  is  not  unreasonable  and 
wicked.  If  when  he  comes  of  lawful  age,  he  is  judged 
to  be  still  in  need  of  guardianship,  or  it  is  expedient  for 
the  good  of  all  concerned  that  he  should  be  my  ward  in 
definitely,  the  law  makes  me,  if  I  choose,  his  guardian, 
with  certain  rights  and  obligations.  Even  if  he  could 
legally  claim  his  freedom  at  his  majority,  circumstances 
might  be  such  that  all  would  say  he  was  under  moral  ob 
ligations  to  remain  with  me.  If  I  abuse  him,  he  must 
consider  before  God  how  far  it  is  his  duty  to  bear  afflic 
tion,  and  submit  to  oppression.  There  are  cases  in  which 
none  would  condemn  him,  should  he  escape.  But  the 
rule  is  to  "  abide."  He  has  not,  under  all  the  circum 
stances  of  our  relation  to  each  other,  a  right  to  walk 
off  at  pleasure.' 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  189 

"  The  company  agreed  in  this,  though  the  physician 
made  no  remark.  We  conversed  further  on  the  antip 
athy  of  the  Free  States  to  a  large  increase  among  them 
of  the  colored  population,  ungrateful  and  perfidious 
Kansas,  even,  withholding  civil  and  political  equality 
from  them  ;  their  condition  in  Canada ;  their  relation  to 
the  whites  in  every  state  where  they  have  gone  to  re 
side  ;  and  we  concluded  that  the  South  was  the  best 
home  for  the  black  man, —  that  home  to  become  better 
and  better  in  proportion  as  the  law  of  Christian  benevo 
lence  prevailed.  We  agreed  that  if  the  South  could  be 
relieved  of  Northern  interference,  the  condition  of  the 
colored  people  would  be  greatly  improved,  in  many  re 
spects  ;  especially,  we  regretted  that  now  we  did  not  have 
an  enlightened  public  sentiment  at  the  North  to  help  the 
best  part  of  the  Southern  people  in  effecting  reforma 
tions  and  improving  the  laws  and  regulations.  Now,  the 
Northern  influence  is  wholly  nugatory,  or  positively  ad 
verse.  The  opinions  and  feelings  of  calm  and  candid  neigh 
bors  and  friends  have  great  influence.  This  the  South 
does  not  enjoy.  The  North  is  her  passionate  reprover ; 
she  is  held  to  be,  by  many,  her  avowed  enemy.  In  re 
sistance,  and  in  retaliation,  compromises  are  broken,  and 
every  political  advantage  is  grasped  at  in  self-defence,  by 
the  South.  Recrimination  ensues,  and  civil  war  is  threat 
ened.  The  only  remedy  is  the  entire  abandonment  by 
the  North  of  interference  with  this  subject ;  but  this 
cannot  take  place  so  long  as  the  Northern  people  labor 
under  their  doctrinal  error  that  it  is  a  sin  to  hold  proper 
ty  in  man.  Here  is  the  root  of  the  difficulty.  We  agreed 
that  if  reflecting  people  at  the  North  would  adopt  Scrip 
tural  views  on  that  point,  peace  would  soon  ensue  ;  for 
all  the  discussions  of  the  supposed  or  real  evils  in  sla- 


190  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

very,  which  would  then  be  the  sole  objects  of  animadver 
sion,  would  elicit  truth,  and  tend  to  good.  If  the  South 
felt  that  the  North  were  truly  her  friend,  they  would 
both  be  found  cooperating  for  the  improvement  and  eleva 
tion  of  the  colored  race.  Every  form  of  oppression  and 
selfishness  would  feel  the  withering  rebuke  of  a  just  and 
enlightened  universal  public  sentiment.  But  now  that 
the  quarrel  runs  high  as  to  the  sinfulness  and  wrongful- 
ness  of  the  relation  itself,  there  is  nothing  for  the  South 
to  do  but  to  stand  by  their  arms. 

"  One  gentleman  made  some  remarks  which  interested 
and  instructed  me  more  than  anything  that  was  said. 
He  confessed  that  the  whole  subject  of  the  relation  of 
master  and  servant,  —  in  a  word,  slavery,  was,  for  a  long 
time,  a  sore  trouble  to  him,  because  he  constantly  found 
himself  searching  for  his  right,  his  warrant  to  hold  his 
slaves.  At  last  he  resolved  to  study  the  Bible  on  the 
subject.  He  naturally  turned  to  the  last  instructions  of 
the  Word  of  God  with  regard  to  it,  and  in  Paul's  in 
junctions  to  masters  and  servants,  he  found  relief. 
There  he  perceived  that  God  recognized  the  relation 
ships  of  slavery,  that  the  golden  rule  was  enjoined,  not 
to  dissolve  the  relation,  but  to  make  it  benevolent  to  all 
concerned.  He  found  the  Almighty  establishing  the  re 
lation  of  master  and  servant  among  his  own  chosen  peo 
ple,  and  decreeing  that  certain  persons  might  be  servants 
forever,  being,  as  he  himself  terms  them  <  an  inheritance 
forever.' 

"Hereupon,  he  said,  his  troubles  ceased.  He  gave 
up  his  speculations  and  casuistry,  and  concluded  to  take 
things  as  he  found  them  and  to  make  them  better.  He 
became  more  than  ever  the  friend  and  patron  of  his  ser 
vants,  rendered  to  them,  to  the  best  of  his  ability  that 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  191 

which  was  just  and  equal,  felt  in  buying  servants  and  in 
having  them  born  in  his  household,  somewhat  as  pastors 
of  churches,  he  supposed,  feel  in  receiving  new  members 
to  be  trained  up  for  usefulness  here,  and  for  heaven.  He 
said  that  he  had  a  hundred  and  seventy-five  servants, 
and  that  he  doubted  whether  there  was  a  happier,  or 
more  virtuous,  or  more  religious  community  anywhere. 

"'  But,'  said  the  young  Northern  lady,  who  had  recent 
ly  come  to  be  a  teacher  in  the  family  where  we  visited, 
*  what  will  become  of  them  when  you  die  ? ' 

" '  Why,  Miss/  said  he,  '  what  will  become  of  any 
household  when  the  parents  die  ?  The  truth  is,'  said  he, 
'  I  believe  in  a  covenant-keeping  God.  I  make  a  prac 
tice  of  praying  for  my  servants,  by  name.  I  keep  a  list 
of  them,  and  I  read  it,  sometimes,  when  I  read  my  Bible, 
and  on  the  Sabbath,  and  on  days  set  apart  for  religious 
services.  I  have  asked  God  to  be  the  God  of  my  ser 
vants  forever.  I  shall  meet 'them  at  the  bar  of  God, 
and  I  trust  with  a  good  conscience.  Many  of  them  have 
become  Christians.' 

"  '  Do  you  ever  sell  them  ?  '  said  she. 

"  '  I  have  parted  with  some  of  my  servants  to  families,' 
he  replied,  '  where  I  knew  that  they  would  fare  as  well 
as  with  me.  This  was  always  with  their  consent,  except 
in  two  or  three  cases  of  inveterate  wickedness,  when,  in 
stead  of  sending  the  fellows  to  the  state-prison  for  life, 
as  you  would  do  at  the  North,  I  sold  them  to  go  to  Red 
River,  and  was  as  willing  to  see  them  marched  off,  hand 
cuffed,  as  you  ever  were  to  see  villains  in  the  custody  of 
the  officers.  But  had  any  of  your  good  people  from  the 
North  met  them,  an  article  would  have  appeared,  perhaps, 
in  all  your  papers,  telling  of  the  heart-rending  spectacle, — 
three  human  beings,  in  a  slave-come  !  going,  they  knew  not 


192  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

where,  into  hopeless  bondage !  And  had  they  escaped 
and  fled  to  Boston,  the  tide  of  philanthropy  there,  in 
many  benevolent  bosoms,  would  have  received  new 
strength  in  the  grateful  accession  of  these  worshipful 
fugitives  from  Southern  cruelty.  Whereas,  all  which 
love  and  kindness,  and  every  form  of  indulgence,  in 
struction,  and  discipline,  tempered  with  mercy,  could  do, 
had  been  used  with  them  in  vain.  One  was  a  thief,  the 
pest  of  the  county,  and  had  earned  long  years  in  a  peni 
tentiary  ;  but  slavery,  you  see,  kept  him  at  liberty ! 
Another  was  brutally  cruel  to  animals ;  another  was  the 
impersonation  of  laziness.  Two  of  them  would  have 
helped  John  Brown,  no  doubt,  had  he  come  here,  and 
they  might  have  gained  a  Bunker  Hill  name,  at  the 
North,  in  an  insurrection  here,  as  champions  of  liberty.' 

"  This  led  to  some  remarks  about  the  great  economy 
which  there  is  in  the  Southern  mode  of  administering 
discipline  and  correction  on  the  spot,  and  at  once,  instead 
of  filling  jails  and  houses  of  correction  with  felons.  But  to 
dwell  on  this  would  lead  me  too  far  into  a  new  branch  of 
our  subject. 

"  This  planter  asked  the  young  lady,  the  school-teacher, 
if  tare  and  tret  were  in  her  arithmetic  ?  Upon  her  say 
ing  'yes,  in  the  older  books,'  he  told  her  that  there 
was,  seemingly,  a  good  deal  of  tare  and  tret  in  God's 
providence,  when  accomplishing  his  great  purposes ;  and 
that  to  fix  the  mind  inordinately  on  evils  and  miseries 
incident  to  a  great  system  and  forgetting  the  main  design, 
was  like  a  man  of  business  being  so  absorbed  by  the  deduc 
tions  and  waste  in  a  great  staple  as  to  forego  the  trade. 
He  said  that  he  thought  the  Northern  mind  ciphered  too 
much  in  that  part  of  moral  arithmetic  as  to  slavery. 

"  A  very  excellent  gentleman  from  the  District  of  Co- 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  193 

lurnbia  who  had  held  an  important  office  under  government, 
gave  us  some  valuable  information.  He  said  that  the 
extinction  of  slavery  in  New  England  was  not  because 
the  institution  was  deemed  to  be  immoral  .or  sinful,  but 
from  other  considerations  and  circumstances.  It  was 
abolished  in  Massachusetts,  without  doubt,  by  a  clause,  in 
the  bill  of  rights,  copied  from  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence.  In  Berkshire,  one  township,  he  believed,  sued 
another  for  the  support  and  maintenance  of  a  pauper 
slave,  and  the  Supreme  Court  decided  that  the  bill  of 
rights  abolished  slavery.  The  question  was  as  incidental, 
he  said,  as  was  the  question  in  the  Dred  Scott  case  which 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  decided.  This  Massa 
chusetts  case  was  previous  to  any  reports  of  decisions, 
and  he  had  some  doubt  as  to  the  form  in  which  the  suit 
was  brought,  but  was  sure  as  to  the  decision.  The  ques 
tion  as  to  abolishing  slavery  was  not  submitted  to  the 
people,  nor  to  a  Convention,  nor  to  the  Legislature. 

"  I  was  specially  interested  in  his  account  of  the  way 
in  which  the  slave-trade  was  prohibited  by  our  excellent 
sister,  Connecticut.  It  was  done  by  a  section  prohibiting 
the  importation  of  slaves  by  sea  or  land,  preceded  by  the 
following  preamble  :  — '  And  whereas  the  increase  of 
slaves  in  this  state  is  injurious  to  the  poor,  and  incon 
venient,  Be  it  therefore  enacted.'  Another  section  of 
the  same  statute,  he  said,  was  preceded  by  the  follow 
ing  words  :  —  '  A.nd  whereas  sound  policy  requires  that 
the  abolition  of  slavery  should  be  effected,  as  soon  as 
may  be  consistent  with  the  rights  of  individuals,  and  the 
public  safety  and  welfare,  Be  it  enacted,'  etc.  Then  fol 
lows  the  provision  that  all  black  and  mulatto  children, 
born  in  slavery,  in  that  state,  after  the  first  of  March, 
1784,  shall  be  free  at  twenty-five  years  of  age.  Selling 


194  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

slaves,  to  be  carried  out  of  the  state,  was  not  prohibited 
before  May,  1792  ;  thus  allowing  more  than  eight  years 
to  the  owners  of  slaves  in  Connecticut  to  sell  their  slaves 
to  Southern  purchasers !  '  There  seems  to  me,'  he  said, 
'  no  evidence  of  superior  humanity  in  this  ;  nor  was  it 
repentance  for  slavery  as  a  sin.'  He  thought  that  if  we 
feel  compelled,  by  our  superior  conscientiousness,  to  re 
quire  any  duty  of  the  South,  all  that  decency  will  allow 
us  to  demand  is,  that  she  tread  in  our  steps. 

"  '  I  think,'  said  a  planter,  '  that  if  pity  is  due  from 
one  to  the  other,  the  South  owes  the  larger  debt  to  the 
North.  There  needs  to  be  a  great  reformation,  namely, 
The  Gradual  Emancipation  of  the  Northern  Mind  from 
"  Anti-slavery  "  Error.' 

"  '  Our  English  friends,  in  their  zeal  against  American 
slavery,'  said  a  young  lawyer,  '  seem  to  forget  that  the 
English  government,  at  the  Peace  of  Utrecht,  agreed  to 
furnish  Spain  with  four  thousand  negroes  annually  for 
thirty  years.' 

"  '  Poor  human  nature  ! '  said  the  Judge.  '  What  should 
we  all  do,  if  we  had  not  the  sins  of  others  to  repent  of 
and  bewail  ? ' 

"  There  was  a  strong  friend  of  temperance  in  the  com 
pany  from  a  north-western  state.  Travelling  in  the  South 
for  pleasure,  some  time  ago,  he  was  immediately  struck 
with  the  comparative  absence  of  intemperance  among  the 
slaves.  On  learning  that  the  laws  forbid  the  sale  of  in 
toxicating  drink  to  them,  and  thinking  of  four  millions  of 
people  in  this  land  as  delivered,  in  a  great  degree,  from 
the  curse  of  drunkenness,  he  says  that  he  exclaimed  : 
'  Pretty  well  for  the  "  sum  of  all  villanies."  The  class 
of  people  in  the  United  States  best-  defended  against 
drunkenness  are  the  slaves  !  '  Some  admonished  him 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  195 

that  the  slaves  did  get  liquor,  and  that  white  men  ven 
tured  to  tempt  them.  *I  don't  care  for  that/  said  he; 
'  of  course,  there  are  exceptions  ;  the  "  sum  of  all  vil- 
lanies  "  is  a  Temperance  Society  ! ' 

"  A  Northern  gentleman,  travelling  through  the  South, 
said,  '  As  to  the  feelings  of  the  North  respecting  a  pos 
sible  insurrection,  I  am  satisfied,  since  visiting  in  differ 
ent  parts  of  the  South,  that  a  very  common  apprehen 
sion  with  us,  respecting  your  liability  to  trouble  from  this 
source,  is  exaggerated  by  fancy. 

" '  We  have  a  theoretical  idea  that  you  must  be  dwell 
ing,  as  we  commonly  hear  it  said,  with  a  volcano  under 
your  feet.  Very  many  regard  your  slaves  as  a  race  of 
noble  spirits,  conscious  of  wrong,  and  burning  with  sup 
pressed  indignation,  which  is  ready  to  break  out  at  every 
chance.  They  think  of  you  at  the  North  as  having  guns 
and  pistols  and  spears  all  about  you,  ready  for  use  at  any 
moment.  But  when  I  spend  a  night  at  your  plantations, 
the  owner  and  I  the  only  white  males,  the  wife  and  seven 
or  eight  young  children  having  us  for  their  only  defend 
ers  against  the  seventy  or  hundred  blacks,  who  are  all 
about  us  in  the  quarters,  the  idea  of  danger  has  really 
never  occurred  to  me ;  because  my  knowledge  of  the 
people  has  previously  disarmed  me  of  fear.' 

" '  Emissaries,  white  and  black,'  said  a  planter,  '  can 
make  us  trouble ;  but  my  belief  is  that  we  could  live 
here  to  the  end  of  time  with  these  colored  people,  and 
be  subject  to  fewer  cases  of  insubordination  by  far  than 
your  corporations  at  the  North  suffer  from  in  strikes. 
Your  people,  generally,  have  no  proper  idea  of  the  black 
man's  nature.  God  seems  to  have  given  him  docility 
and  gentleness,  that  he  may  be  a  slave  till  the  time  comes 
for  him  to  be  something  else.  So  He  has  given  the  Jews 


196  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

their  peculiarities,  fitting  them  for  His  purposes  with  re 
gard  to  them  ;  and  to  the  Irish  laborer  He  has  given  his 
willingness  and  strength  to  dig,  making  him  the  builder 
of  your  railways.  If  we  fulfil  our  trust,  with  regard  to 
the  blacks,  according  to  the  spirit  and  rules  of  the  New 
Testament,  I  believe  God  will  be  our  defender,  and  that 
all  his  attributes  will  be  employed  to  maintain  our  au 
thority  over  this  people  for  his  own  great  purposes.  We 
have  nothing  to  fear  except  from  white  fanatics,  North 
and  South.' 

" '  I  have  no  idea,'  said  the  Judge,  '  of  dooming  every 
individual  of  this  colored  race  to  unalterable  servitude. 
I  am  in  favor  of  putting  them  in  the  way  of  developing 
any  talent  which  any  of  them,  from  time  to  time,  may 
exhibit.  More  of  this,  I  am  sure,  would  be  done  by  us, 
if  we  were  freed  from  the  necessity  of  defending  our 
selves  against  Northern  assaults  upon  our  social  system, 
involving,  as.  these  assaults  do,  peril  to  life,  and  to  things 
dearer  than  life.  But  I  see  tenfold  greater  evils  in  all 
the  plans  of  emancipation  which  have  ever  been  pro 
posed  than  in  the  present  state  of  things.' 

"  The  pastor  of  the  place,  who  was  present,  had  not 
taken  much  part  in  the  discussion,  though  he  had  not 
purposely  kept  aloof  from  it.  He  was  Southern  born, 
inherited  slaves,  had  given  them  their  liberty  one  by  one, 
and  had  recently  returned  from  the  North,  where  he  had 
been  to  see  two  of  them  —  the  last  of  his  household  — 
embark  as  hired  servants  with  families  who  were  to 
travel  in  Europe. 

"  Some  of  us  asked  him  about  his  visit  to  the  North. 
Said  he,  *  I  went  to  church  one  day,  and  was  enjoying 
the  devotional  services,  when  all  at  once  the  minister 
broke  out  in  prayer  for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  He 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  197 

presented  the  South  before  God  as  "  oppressors,"  and 
prayed  that  they  might  at  once  repent,  and  "  break  every 
yoke,"  and  "  let  the  oppressed  go  free."  I  took  him  to  be 
an  immediate  emancipationist,  perhaps  peculiar  in  his 
views.  But  in  the  afternoon  I  went  into  another  church, 
and  in  prayer  the  minister  began  to  pray  "  for  all  classes 
and  conditions  of  men  among  us."  I  was  glad  to  see,  as  I 
thought,  charity  beginning  at  home.  But  the  next  sen 
tence  took  in  our  whole  land ;  and  the  next  was  a  down 
right  swoop  upon  slavery  ;  so  that  I  regarded  his  pre 
vious  petitions  merely  as  spiral  movements  toward  the 
South.  If  the  good  man's  petitions  had  been  heard,  woe 
to  him  and  to  the  North,  and  to  the  slaves,  to  say  nothing 
of  ourselves. 

"  '  I  stopped  after  service,  and,  without  at  first  introduc 
ing  myself,  I  asked  him  if  he  was  in  the  habit  of  praying, 
as  he  had  done  to-day,  for  slave-holders.  He  said  yes. 
I  asked  him  if  it  was  a  general  practice  at  the  North. 
He  thought  it  was.  I  inquired  if  he  would  have  every 
slave  liberated  to-morrow,  if  he  could  effect  it.  "  By  all 
means,"  said  he.  —  "  Would  they  be  better  off?  "  said  I. 

—  "  Undoubtedly  they  would,"  said  he.    "  But  that  is  not 
the  question.     Do  right,  if  the  heavens  fall."  —  "  What 
would  become  of  them  ?"  said  I.  —  "Hire  them,"  said  he; 
"  pay  them  wages  ;  let  husbands  and  wives  live  together ; 

abolish  auction-blocks,  and  " "  But,"  said  I,  "  some 

of  the  very  best  of  men  in  the  world,  at  the  South,  are  de 
cidedly  of  the  opinion  that  such  emancipation  would  be  the 
most  barbarous  thing  that  could  be  devised  for  the  slaves." 

—  "Are  you  a  slave-holder?  "  said  he.  —  "I  was,"  said  I ; 
"  but  I  have  liberated  my  slaves,  and  I  am  in  your  city 
to  see  the  last  two  of  my  servants  sail  with  your  fellow- 
citizens,  and  "  (naming  them).  —  "You  don't 


198  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

say  so  !  "  said  he.  "  What  did  you  liberate  them  for?"  — 
"  I  could  not  take  proper  care  of  them,"  said  I,  "  situated 
as  I  am."  —  "  But,"  said  he,  "  did  you  do  right  in  letting 
them  go  to  sea  as  you  did  ?  One  of  them  will  get  no 
good  with  that  man  for  a  master.  I  would  rather  be 
your  dog  than  his  child."  —  "  Then,"  said  I,  "  you  have 
1  oppressors '  at  the  North,  it  seems."  —  "  Well,"  said  he, 
"  some  of  our  people  are  not  as  good  as  they  ought  to  be." 
—  "  It  is  so  with  us  at  the  South,"  said  I.  —  "  Preach  for 
me  next  Sabbath,  Sir,"  said  he.  —  "  Are  you  going  to  stay 
over  ?  "  —  "  Why,"  said  I,  "  my  dear  Sir,  would  you  and 
your  people  like  to  hear  a  man  preach  for  you  whom 
you,  if  you  made  the  prayer,  would  first  pray  for  as  an 
'oppressor?'"  —  "But  you  are  not  an  oppressor,"  said 
he.  — "  But  I  am  in  favor  of  what  you  call  *  oppression,'" 
said  I.  —  "One  thing  I  could  pray  for  with  you,"  said  I. — 
"  What  is  that  ?  "  said  he.  —  "  Break  every  yoke,"  said  I. 
"  This  I  pray  for  always.  But  how  many  '  yokes,' "  said 
I,  " do  you  suppose  there  are  at  the  South ? "  —  "I  forget 
the  exact  number  of  the  slaves,"  said  he,  in  the  most  art 
less  manner.' 

"  Hereupon  the  company  broke  out  into  great  merri 
ment.  After  they  had  enjoyed  their  laughter  awhile, 
my  Northern  lady-friend  said,  '  Did  you  preach  for  him  ? ' 

" '  Yes,'  said  the  pastor  ;  '  and  prayed  for  him  too. 

"  '  Walking  through  the  streets  of  that  place  in  the 
evening,  I  saw  evidence  that  no  minister  nor  citizen  there 
was  justified  in  casting  the  first  stone  at  the  South  for 
immorality.  I  lifted  up  my  heart  in  thanks  to  God  that 
my  sons  were  not  exposed  to  the  temptations  of  a  North 
ern  city.  Being  in  the  United  States  District  Court  there, 
several  times,  I  had  some  revelations  also  with  regard  to 
the  treatment  and  the  condition  of  seamen  in  some  North- 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  199 

ern  ships,  which  led  me  to  the  conclusion  which  I  have 
often  drawn,  —  that  poor  human  nature  is  about  the 
same,  North  and  South. 

" '  So,  when  I  conducted  the  services  of  public  worship, 
I  prayed  for  that  city  and  for  the  young  people,  and  al 
luded  to  the  temptations  which  I  had  witnessed ;  and  I 
referred  also  to  mariners,  and  prayed  for  masters  and 
officers  of  vessels  who  had  such  authority  over  the  wel 
fare  and  the  lives  of  seamen  ;  and  I  prayed  that  Chris 
tians  in  both  sections  of  our  land  might  pray  for  each 
other,  considering  each  themselves,  lest  they  also  be 
tempted,  and  that  they  might  not  be  self-righteous  and 
accusatory  ;  and  that  our  eye  might  not  be  so  filled  with 
the  evils  of  other  sections  of  the  land  as  not  to  see  those 
which  were  at  home. 

"  '  After  service  the  good  brother  said,  "  I  suppose  you 
referred  in  your  prayer  to  my  praying  against  the  South, 
as  you  call  it.  Well,"  said  he,  confidentially,  "  the  truth 
is,  some  of  our  people  make  this  thing  their  religion,  and 
they  will  not  abide  a  man  who  does  not  pray  against 
slavery."  Some  gentlemen,  with  their  ladies,  stopped  to 
speak  with  me.  One  shook  me  by  the  hand  most  cor 
dially.  "  We  are  glad  to  see  our  good  Southern  breth 
ren,"  said  he  ;  "  thankful  to  hear  you  preach  so,  and  pray 
so,  too,"  said  he,  with  an  additional  shake  and  a  signifi 
cant  look,  while  the  rest  were  equally  cordial  with  their 
assent.  One  of  the  gentlemen  took  me  home  with  him. 
"  This  is  most  of  it  politics,"  said  he,  "  and  newspaper 
trade,  this  anti-slavery  feeling.  The  people  generally 
are  not  fanatics  ;  they  are  kind  and  humane,  and  their 
sensibilities  are  touched  by  tales  of  distress."  —  "  Espe 
cially  Southern,"  said  I.  "  Last  eve  I  read  in  your  papers 
four  outrages  which  happened  within  fifteen  miles  of  this 


200  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

city,  and  two  in  your  city,  which  equalled,  to  say  the 
least,  in  barbarity  anything  that  ever  comes  to  my  knowl 
edge  among  our  people." 

u  '  The  next  Sabbath,  as  I  have  since  learned,  my  good 
brother  was  very  comprehensive,  discriminating,  and  im- 
impartial  in  his  supplications.  He  really  distinguished 
between  those  at  the  South  who  "  oppress  "  their  fellow- 
men,  and  those  who  "  remember  them  that  are  in  bonds 
as  bound  with  them."  But,'  said  the  pastor,  '  the  most 
of  those  who  use  that  latter  expression  at  the  North  really 
think  the  Apostle  had  slaves,  as  a  class,  in  mind.  I  have 
no  such  belief.  I  suppose  that  he  referred  to  persecuted 
Christians,  suffering  imprisonment  for  their  religion,  and 
to  all  afflicted  persons. 

"  '  My  landlord  said  to  me,'  he  continued,  '  "  They  tell 
us  you  are  afraid  of  free  discussion  at  the  South,  that  you 
are  afraid  to  have  your  slaves  hear  some  things,  lest  it 
should  excite  them  to  insurrection.  How  is  this  ?  " 

" '  I  told  him  that  the  slaves,  being  the  lower  order  of  so 
ciety  with  us,  were  not  capable  of  so  discriminating  in  that 
which  promiscuous  strangers  should  see  fit  to  say  to  them 
as  to  make  it  safe  to  have  them  listen  to  every  harangue 
or  to  every  one  who  should  set  himself  up  to  teach.  "  Of 
course,"  said  I,  "  there  are  liabilities  and  dangers  in  our 
state  of  society.  We  must  use  prudence  and  caution. 
We  have  some  loose  powder  in  our  magazine.  No  one 
denies  this.  What  if  one  who  was  rebuked  for  carrying 
an  open  lamp  into  the  magazine  of  a  ship,  should  re 
proach  the  captain  with  being  '  an  enemy  to  the  light,' 
and  as  '  loving  darkness  rather  than  light '  ?  " 

"  '  While  at  the  North,'  said  he,  1 1  read  Mr.  Buckle  on 
civilization,  and  I  reflected  upon  the  subject.  Being  in  a 
great  assembly,  once  or  twice,  listening  to  abolitionist 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  201 

orators,  lay  and  clerical,  and  hearing  their  vile  assaults 
on  personal  character,  their  vulgar  and  reckless  ridicule 
of  fifteen  States  of  our  Union,  their  affected,  oracular 
way  of  saying  the  most  trite  things  as  though  they  were 
aphorisms,  but  reminding  me  of  the  piles  of  short  stuff 
which  you  see  round  a  saw-mill,  and  hearing  the  great 
throng  applaud  and  shout,  I  asked  myself  whether  we 
have  really  made  any  decided  advances  in  civilization 
since  the  Hebrew  Commonwealth.  I  really  doubted 
whether  those  orators  could  have  collected  an  audience 
of  Hebrews  even  in  the  wilderness.  Under  the  "Judges," 
the  people  were,  at  times,  low  enough  to  enjoy  such 
drivelling.  The  willingness  at  the  North  to  hear  these 
men,  and  to  applaud  them,  gave  me  a  low  idea  of  the 
state  of  society.' 

" '  But,'  said  I,  '  confess  now  that  you  found  specimens 
of  cultivated  life  there  such  as  you  never  saw  sur 
passed.' 

" '  I  did,'  said  he,  '  many  times.  And  I  must  tell  you/ 
he  added,  '  of  my  enjoyment  in  looking  on  your  pastures 
in  autumn,  —  the  sun  shining  aslant  upon  them  of  an 
afternoon,  —  and  in  noticing  what  shades  of  scarlet  and 
crimson  were  given  to  the  picture  by  the  whortleberry 
leaves,  which,  I  found,  contributed  most  to  the  coloring 
of  the  landscape.  I  also  saw  a  peculiarity  of  the  whortle 
berry's  flower,  which,  when  stung  by  an  insect  sometimes 
swells  to  twenty-five  times  its  natural  size,  and  becomes 
a  fungus.' 

"  '  Now,'  said  I,  '  why  not  apply  this,  —  perhaps  you 
were  intending  to  do  so,  —  and  say  that  society  at  the 
North  is  generally  like  our  whortleberry  pastures  in  au 
tumn,  which  pleased  you  so  much,  with  here  and  there  a 
fungus,  made  by  the  sting  of  radicalism.' 

9* 


202  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  A  planter's  Northern  wife  said,  '  I  should  like  to 
move  the  adoption  of  that  simile.' 

" '  We  will  have  it  so,'  said  the  Judge  to  me,  *  if  the 
lady  and  you  tell  us  that  we  must.' 

"  '  A  fungus,'  said  I,  '  gets  more  attention  from  one  half 
of  the  people  who  go  into  the  woods,  than  all  the  pure 
and  beautiful  garniture  of  the  pastures.' 

"  The  ladies  of  our  company  having  been  rallied  for  not 
having  done  their  part  in  the  conversation,  and  also,  of 
course,  having  been  complimented  for  keeping  silence  so 
long,  the  wife  of  one  of  the  planters,  a  Northern  lady, 
made  this  remark  that  considering  how  God,  in  his  prov 
idence,  had  made  such  provision  for  the  welfare  of  the 
human  family  through  slavery  in  our  land,  and,  in  doing 
it,  had  shown  mercy  and  salvation  to  so  many  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Africans,  she  thought  it  both  ungrateful 
and  narrow-minded  in  people  anywhere  to  confine  all 
their  thoughts  to  the  incidental  evils  of  the  slaves.  She 
said  that  in  the  North  she  was  not  an  abolitionist,  but  on 
coming  to  the  South  and  finding  things  so  different  from 
that  which  her  fancy  had  pictured,  she  had  concluded  to 
be  very  charitable  toward  the  most  of  her  Northern 
friends  who  she  said  were  no  more  in  the  dark  than  she 
herself  had  been  all  her  days,  from  reading  newspapers 
and  tales  which  had  concealed  one  whole  side  of  slavery 
from  the  view  of  Northern  people.  She  added  that  she 
preferred  life  at  the  North  without  the  blacks,  but  had 
found  more  disinterested  benevolence  toward  them  in  one 
year  at  the  South  than  she  had  charity  to  believe  existed 
in  the  hearts  of  all  the  good  people  at  the  North  toward 
them,  counting  in  even  the  professional  benevolence  of 
the  '  friends  of  the  slave.' 

"  After  refreshments,  the  pastor  was  called  upon  to  read 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  203 

the  Scriptures,  and  to  offer  prayer.  He  read  the  fifteenth 
chapter  of  Revelation.  Never  can  I  forget  the  impres 
sion  which  one  of  the  verses  in  that  chapter  made  upon 
me,  in  connection  with  some  of  the  thoughts  awakened 
by  our  conversation  about  the  sovereignty  of  God  as 
displayed  in  his  dark  and  awful  dispensations  towards 
races,  nations,  and  men  :  *  And  the  seven  angels  came 
out  of  the  temple,  having  the  seven  plagues,  clothed  in 
pure  and  white  linen,  and  having  their  breasts  girded 
with  golden  girdles.'  'Those  who  are  in  any  way  as 
sociated  with  the  administration  of  God's  great  judg 
ments  towards  their  fellow-men,'  said  he,  '  have  need  of 
special  purity;  and  their  honor  should  be  like  the  un 
tarnished  gold.' 

"  This  pastor  told  me,  during  the  repast,  that  one  day, 
returning  suddenly  from  his  study  in  the  church  just 
after  breakfast,  to  the  house  of  one  of  the  gentlemen 
present,  with  whom  he  lived,  and  who  was  one  of  the 
wealthiest  men  in  the  South,  and  passing  through  the 
parlor  to  get  a  book,  he  found  the  room  darkened,  and 
the  lady  of  the  house  kneeling  in  prayer  with  her  ser 
vants.  He  of  course  withdrew  at  once,  but  he  learned 
afterward  from  one  of  the  'slaves,'  that  it  was  the 
lady's  daily  custom.  He  often  thought  of  that  in 
cident  when  reading  Northern  religious  newspapers 
and  noticing  their  lamentations  over  '  slave-holding  pro 
fessors.'" 

So  much  for  my  Southern  visit. 

Mrs.  North  said  that  in  our  next  conversation  she 
would  suggest  that  we  consider  the  relation  of  Chris 
tianity  to  Slavery.  I  told  her  that  I  had  some  night 


204  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

thoughts    on  that  subject,  which  I  would  with  pleasure 
submit,  at  another  time. 

As  the  rain  continued,  Mr.  North  and  I  resorted 
to  the  wood-pile  in  the  shed  for  exercise,  till  dinner 
time,  Mrs.  North  following  us  to  the  door,  and  charg 
ing  us  not  to  converse  upon  this  subject  till  she  should 
be  present. 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  205 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DISCUSSION  IN  PHILEMON'S  CHURCH  AT  THE  RETURN 

OF    ONESIMUS. 

"  My  equal  will  he  be  again 

Down  in  that  cold,  oblivious  gloom, 
Where  all  the  prostrate  ranks  of  men 
Crowd  without  fellowship,  —  the  toinb." 

JAMES  MONTGOMERY. 

"  T  WILL  now  relate  to  you,"  said  I,  as  we  resumed 
-L     our  conversation,  "  the  thoughts  which  came  to  me 

one  night  as  I  lay  awake  meditating  on  this  subject.     I 

wrote  them  down  the  next  day. 

"  The  subject  in  our  conversation  which  suggested  them 

was,  The  relation  of  Christianity  to  slavery. 

"  About  the  year  A.  D.  64,  two  men,  travellers  from 
Rome,  entered  the  city  of  Colosse,  in  Phrygia,  Asia 
Minor,  both  of  them  the  bearers  of  letters  from  the 
Apostle  Paul,  then  a  prisoner  at  Rome. 

"  A  Christian  Church  had  been  gathered  at  Colosse. 
Its  pastor  was  probably  Archippus.  Some  think  that 
Epaphras  was  his  colleague.  This  church,  according  to 
Dr.  Lardner  and  others,  was  most  probably  gathered  by 
the  Apostle  Paul  himself.  Mount  Cadmus  rose  behind 
the  city,  with  its  almost  perpendicular  side,  and  a  huge 
chasm  in  the  mountain  was  the  outlet  of  a  torrent  which 
flowed  into  the  river  Lycus,  on  which  the  city  was  built. 


206  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

standing  not  far  from  the  junction  of  this  river  with  the 
Moeander. 

"  One  of  the  two  men  who  bore  these  letters  was  a 
slave.  His  name  was  Onesimus.  He  robbed  his  mas 
ter,  Philemon,  of  Colosse,  fled  to  Rome,  heard  Paul 
preach,  was  converted,  and  now  by  the  Apostle  is  sent 
back  to  his  master  with  a  letter,  in  charge  of  Tychicus, 
who,  with  this  Onesimus,  was  the  bearer  of  a  letter  to 
the  Colossian  Church. 

"  Let  us  attend  the  church-meeting.  The  pastor,  Ar- 
chippus,  presides.  Epaphras  is  at  Rome. 

"  What  an  interesting  company  do  we  behold  as  we  sit 
near  the  pastor's  table,  in  full  view  of  the  audience  !  The 
inhabitants  of  this  place  were  noted  for  the  worship  of 
Bacchus,  and  Cybele,  mother  of  the  gods;  hence  her 
name,  Phrygia  Mater.  Every  kind  of  licentious  lan 
guage  and  actions  was  practised  in  the  worship  of  these 
deities,  accompanied  with  a  frantic  rage  called  orgies, 
from  the  Greek  word  for  rage.  This  was  a  part  of  their 
religious  worship.  From  among  such  people,  converts 
had  been  made  to  Christianity,  together  with  some  who 
had  been  turned  from  Judaism. 

"  The  letter  from  the  Apostle  Paul  is  brought  in  and 
is  laid  on  the  pastor's  table,  and  some  account  is  given  of 
the  manner  in  which  it  was  received.  The  letter  is  read. 
It  refers  the  Colossians,  at  the  close,  to  the  bearers,  for 
further  information  and  instructions.  i  All  my  state  shall 
Tychicus  declare  unto  you,  who  is  a  beloved  brother  and 
a  faithful  minister  and  fellow-servant  in  the  Lord.  Whom 
I  have  sent  unto  you  for  the  same  purpose,  that  he  might 
know  your  estate,  and  comfort  your  hearts.  With  Onesi 
mus,  a  faithful  and  beloved  brother,  who  is  one  of  you. 
They  shall  make  known  unto  you  all  things  which  are 
done  here.' 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  207 

"  Tjchicus  relates  his  story,  and,  when  he  has  finished, 
Philemon,  a  member  of  the  Church,  addresses  the  meet 
ing.  He  was  evidently  a  man  of  distinction  in  that  com 
munity,  as  we  infer  from  the  large  number  of  persons  in 
his  household,  (ver.  2,)  his  liberality  to  poor  Christians, 
(ver.  5,  7,)  and  from  the  marked  respect  and  deference 
paid  to  him  by  the  Apostle.  He  also  had  received  a  let 
ter  from  the  Apostle,  and  he  asks  leave  to  read  it. 

"  He  then  tells  them  that  Onesimus  is  present  ; 
that  he  has  been  sent  back  by  the  Apostle  Paul,  and 
with  the  full,  cordial  consent  of  Onesimus  himself.  He 
would  ask  permission  for  Onesimus  to  say  a  few  words. 

" l  Come  hither,'  says  the  pastor,  '  and  tell  us  what 
the  Lord  hath  done  for  thee,  and  how  he  hath  had  mercy 
on  thee.' 

" '  Let  me  wash  the  saints'  feet,'  says  Onesimus,  '  but 
I  am  not  worthy  to  teach  in  the  church.' 

"  He  proceeds  to  tell  them,  in  full,  of  his  escape  from 
his  master,  after  robbing  him  ;  of  his  meeting  the  Apos 
tle  at  Rome  ;  of  his  conversion  ;  of  his  voluntary  return 
to  spend  his  days,  if  such  be  the  will  of  God,  as  the  ser 
vant  of  Philemon. 

"  The  account  of  these  proceedings  reaches  Laodicea, 
not  far  distant,  to  which  place  Paul  had  also  sent  a  letter, 
and  the  Colossians,  agreeably  to  the  Apostle's  charge, 
exchange  letters,  and  no  doubt  the  letter  to  Philemon  is 
also  read  to  the  Church  which  is  at  Laodicea. 

"  Whereupon,  we  will  suppose,  a  controversy  at  once 
springs  up.  There  had  already  appeared  in  this  region 
of  Phrygia,  as  we  infer  from  the  Epistle  to  the  Colos 
sians,  serious  errors,  among  them  a  kind  of  angel  wor 
ship  and  asceticism,  or  abstinence  from  things  lawful,  and 
a  state  of  things  called  Gnosis,  (Eng.  knowledge,)  or 


208  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

Gnosticism,  a  pervading  spirit  of  worldly  wisdom,  sci 
ence,  philosophy,  which  treated  the  simplicity  which  was 
in  Christ  as  too  rudimental  and  plain  for  the  human 
mind,  and  therefore  sought  to  furnisli  it  with  speculations 
and  mysticism,  to  gratify  its  desires  for  a  more  extensive 
spiritual  knowledge  than  it  seemed  to  many  of  them  was 
provided  for  by  Christianity. 

"  Among  the  speculations  and  theories  of  those  days, 
we  will  suppose  that  the  idea  began  to  prevail  that 
Christianity  was  inconsistent  with  holding  a  fellow-being 
in  bondage.  A  motion  is  made  in  the  Laodicean  Church 
that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  confer  with  the  Colossian 
Church  on  the  return  of  Onesimus  into  slavery.  Such 
a  motion  would  have  found  ready  advocates  in  the  Church 
at  Laodicea,  if,  as  at  a  later  day,  they  were  '  neither  cold 
nor  hot '  in  religion  ;  in  which  case  any  collateral  subjects 
wholly  or  partly  secular,  would  have  a  charm  for  them. 
These  supplied  that  lack  of  warmth  which  they  were 
conscious  of  as  to  religion ;  their  church-meeting,  no 
doubt,  seemed  to  them  dull,  unless  a  subject  was  introduced 
which  gave  opportunity  for  discussion,  and  for  things 
which  gendered  debate,  whereof  cometh  envy,  strife, 
railings,  evil  surmisings. 

"  The  result  of  the  conference  on  the  part  of  the  Laod 
icean  Committee  with  the  Colossian  Church  was,  that  a 
general  meeting  was  appointed  to  discuss  the  subject  of 
the  return  of  Onesimus  into  slavery.  It  was  a  private 
session  of  members  of  the  two  churches.  They  claimed 
the  privilege  as  Christians  of  discussing  any  question  re 
lating  to  the  government  and  the  laws,  taking  care  that  no 
spies  were  present ;  still,  with  all  their  precautions,  false 
brethren  made  trouble  for  them  by  giving  private  infor 
mation  to  the  civil  authorities  against  some  of  their  num- 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  209 

her,  whom  they  disliked  ;  and  this  led  to  some  oppression 
and  persecution. 

"  But  the  meeting  was  fully  attended.  Two  members 
of  the  church  who  were  faithful  servants  to  slave-holding 
brethren  were  set  to  guard  the  doors.  The  slaves  were 
allowed  to  be  present  and  listen  to  the  discussion.  This 
was  carried  after  much  debate,  some  contending  that  it 
would  expose  the  Christians  to  just  reprehension  from  the 
civil  authorities ;  and  others  maintaining  that  it  would  do 
the  slaves  good  to  hear  such  doctrines  advanced  and  en 
forced  as  would  be  quoted  from  the  Apostle  relating  to 
masters  and  servants. 

"  The  discussion  was  opened  by  a  brother  from  Laodicea, 
an  office-bearer  in  the  church,  a  private  citizen,  devoted 
to  study,  and  an  author  of  some  repute.  He  was  for 
merly  odist  at  the  festivals  of  Cybele.  His  pieces  were 
collected  and  published  under  the  title  of  '  Phrygian 
Canticles.'  His  name  was  Olamus. 

"  He  took  the  ground  that  Christianity  abrogated 
slavery.  He  quoted  the  well  known  words  of  Paul,  so 
familiar  to  all  who  had  heard  him  preach :  l  In  Christ 
Jesus  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  barbarian,  Scyth 
ian,  bond  nor  free  ;  but  all  are  one  in  Christ.'  '  The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me  because  he  hath  sent  me 
to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  the  opening  of  the 
prison  doors  to  them  that  are  bound.'  *  Whatsoever  ye 
would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  you  even  so  to 
them/ 

"  He  maintained  that  to  own  a  fellow-creature  was  in 
consistent  with  this  law  of  equal  love  ;  that  it  was  giving 
sanction  to  a  feature  of  barbarism ;  that,  practically,  sla 
very  was  the  sum  of  all  villanies  ;  an  enormous  wrong ;  a 
stupendous  injustice. 


210  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  If  any  one  should  reply  that  the  Mosaic  institutions 
recognized  slavery,  he  had  one  brief  answer  :  —  '  which 
things  are  done  away  in  Christ.'  Moses  permitted  this 
and  some  other  things  for  the  hardness  of  their  hearts. 
Polygamy  was  allowed  by  Moses,  not  by  Christianity ; 
its  spirit  is  against  it ;  the  bishop  of  a  church  must  be  '  the 
husband  of  one  wife ; '  slavery  is  certainly  none  the  less 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel. 

"  But  inasmuch  as  it  is  inexpedient  to  dissolve  at  once, 
and  in  all  cases,  the  relation  of  master  and  slave,  he  con 
tended  that  while  the  relation  continued,  it  should  be  reg 
ulated  by  the  laws  which  God  himself  once  prescribed. 
Every  seventh  year  should  be  a  year  of  release  ;  every 
fiftieth  year  should  be  a  jubilee.  And  as  to  fugitives, 
he  would  refer  his  brethren  to  that  Divine  injunction: 
'  Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master  the  servant 
•which  is  escaped  from  his  master  unto  thee ;  he  shall 
dwell  with  thee,  even  among  you,  in  that  place  which  he 
shall  choose,  in  one  of  thy  gates,  where  it  liketh  him 
best ;  tliou  shalt  not  oppress  him.' 

"  That  a  slave  having  escaped  from  his  master  could 
not  rightfully  be  sent  back  into  bondage,  was  evident 
from  these  considerations: 

"  All  men  are  born  free  and  equal,  and  have  an  inal 
ienable  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
If  a  slave  sees  fit  to  walk  off,  or  run  off,  or  ride  off  on 
his  master's  beast,  or  sail  off  in  his  master's  boat,  he  has  a 
perfect  right  to  do  so.  Slavery  is  violence ;  every  man 
may  resist  violence  offered  to  his  person,  except  under 
process  of  law  ;  the  person  cannot  be  taken  except  for 
crime,  or  debt,  or  in  war ;  every  man  owns  his  body  and 
soul ;  the  person  cannot  become  merchandise,  except  for 
the  three  causes  above  named,  which  he  acknowledged 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  211 

were  justifiable  causes  of  involuntary  servitude  at  pres 
ent.  But  to  forcibly  seize  a  weaker  man,  or  race,  and 
hold  them  in  bondage  he  declared  to  be  in  violation  of 
the  laws  of  nature,  and  contrary  to  the  -  Christian  re 
ligion. 

"  If  it  should  be  replied  that  Paul  the  Apostle  counte 
nanced  slavery  by  sending  back  Onesimus,  he  would  an 
swer,  that  Paul  was  a  Jew,  and  was  not  yet  freed  wholly 
from  Jewish  practices  and  associations  of  ideas.  Gnosti 
cism  has  supervened  upon  the  rudimental  childhood  of 
spiritual  truth.  He  believed  in  progress.  It  was  con 
trary  to  the  instinct  of  human  nature  to  send  back  a  poor 
fugitive  into  bondage,  and  he  was  glad  for  one  that  he 
lived  in  an  age  when  the  innate  moral  sentiments,  under 
the  lucid  teachings  of  our  more  transcendental  scholars 
were  becoming  more  and  more  the  all-sufficient  guide  in 
the  affairs  of  life.  He  would,  therefore,  publicly  disclaim 
his  allegiance  to  the  teachings  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  if, 
upon  reflection,  Paul  should  insist  that  he  was  right  in 
remanding  Onesimus  to  be  Philemon's  property  *  for 
ever  ; '  it  was  well  enough  that  he  should  be  sent  back 
to  restore  what  he  had  taken  by  theft,  provided  Phile 
mon  would  immediately  release  him  ;  otherwise,  to  steal 
from  Philemon  was  doing  no  more  than  Philemon  had 
done  to  him,  in  taking  away  that  liberty  which  is  the 
birthright  of  every  human  being ;  and  Onesimus  proba 
bly  stole  merely  to  assist  his  escape.  He  was  justifiable 
in  doing  so. 

"If  one  should  insist  that  there  can  be  no  intrinsic 
wrong  in  holding  a  fellow-being  as  property  because  God 
allowed  Hebrews  to  sell  themselves,  and  in  certain  cases 
to  be  servants  forever,  and  directed  the  Israelites  to  buy 
servants  of  the  heathen  round  about  them,  who  should 


212  THP:  SABLE  CLOUD. 

be  an  inheritance  to  the  children  of  the  Israelites,  he 
would  simply  say  either  that  the  whole  pentateuch  which 
contained  such  a  libel  on  the  divine  character,  is  thereby 
proved  to  be  a  forgery,  or,  that  if  the  pentateuch  is  to  be 
received,  it  only  proves  that  in  condescension  to  a  race 
of  freebooters  who  were  employed,  as  the  Israelites  were, 
in  bloody  wars  of  extermination,  slavery  was  allowed 
them,  to  prevent,  perhaps,  worse  evils,  and  in  consistency 
with  their  dark-minded,  semi-barbarous  condition.  In 
this  enlightened  age  when  Greece  and  Rome  had  shed 
superior  light  on  human  relationships  and  obligations,  and 
especially  since  Christ  had  promulgated  the  golden  rule, 
the  idea  that  man  could  own  a  fellow-creature  was  so 
preposterous  that  he  would  be  an  infidel,  nay,  he  would 
go  farther,  he  would  be  an  atheist,  rather  than  believe  it. 
Our  moral  instincts  are  our  guide.  They  are  the  highest 
source  of  evidence  that  there  is  a  God,  and  they  are  a 
perfect  indication  as  to  what  God  and  his  requirements 
should  be.  He  was  for  passing  a  vote  of  disapprobation 
at  the  act  of  Paul  the  Apostle  in  sending  back  Onesimus 
into  bondage.  Tell  me  not,  said  he,  that  the  Apostle 
calls  him  '  a  brother  beloved,'  and  '  one  of  you ; '  these 
honeyed  phrases  are  but  coatings  to  a  deadly  poison.  Sla 
very  is  evil,  and  only  evil  and  that  continually.  Disguise 
it  as  you  will,  Philemon  holds  property  in  Onesimus. 
By  the  laws  of  Phrygia,  he  could  put  Onesimus  to 
death  for  running  away.  He  deplored  the  act  as  a 
heavy  blow  at  Christianity.  It  would  countervail  the 
teachings  of  the  Apostle.  He  sincerely  hoped  that  the 
Epistle  to  Philemon  would  not  be  preserved  ;  for  should 
it  be  collected  hereafter,  as  possibly  it  may,  among  Paul's 
letters,  unborn  ages  might  make  it  an  apology  for  slavery, 
it  would  abate  the  hatred  of  the  world  against  the  sum 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  213 

of  all  villanies.  He  would  even  be  in  favor  of  a  vote 
requesting  Philemon  to  give  Onesimus  his  liberty  at  once, 
even  without  his  consent,  sending  him  back,  with  this 
most  unwise  and  unblest  epistle  to  Philemon,  to  Paul, 
who  says  that  he  '  would  have  retained  him,'  but  would 
not  without  Philemon's  consent.  He  did  hope  that  the 
brethren  would  speak  their  minds,  be  open-mouthed,  and 
not  be  like  dumb  dogs.  For  his  part  he  wanted  an  anti- 
slavery  religion.  He  acknowledged  that  the  truths  of 
the  Gospel  needed  the  stimulant  of  freedom  to  give  them 
life  and  power. 

"  His  remarks  evidently  produced  a  great  sensation,  for 
a  variety  of  reasons,  as  we  may  well  suppose. 

"  A  man  took  the  floor  in  opposition  to  this  Laodicean 
brother.  He  was  a  Jewish  convert,  a  member  of  the 
Colossian  Church.  His  name  was  Theodotus.  Born  a 
Jew,  he  had  renounced  his  religion  and  became  a  Greek 
Sophist,  practised  law  at  Scio,  and  heard  Paul  at  Mars 
Hill,  where,  with  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  with  whom 
he  was  visiting,  he  was  converted.  He  had  established 
himself  at  Colosse,  in  the  practice  of  law.  He  was  un 
usually  tall  for  a  man  of  his  descent,  had  beautifully  reg 
ular  Jewish  features,  and  was  a  captivating  speaker. 

"  He  said  that  they  had  '  heard  strange  things  to-day. 
If  they  are  true,  we  have  no  foundation  underneath  our 
feet.  Every  man's  moral  sentiments,  it  seems,  are  to  be 
his  guide.  Where,  then,  is  our  common  appeal  ?  For 
his  part  he  believed  that  if  God  be  our  heavenly  Father, 
he  has  given  his  children  an  authentic  book,  a  writing, 
for  their  guide,  unless  he  prefers  to  speak  personally 
with  them,  or  with  their  representatives.  When  he 
ceased  to  speak  by  the  prophets,  he  spoke  to  us  by  his 
Son  ;  and  now  that  his  Son  is  ascended,  I  believe,'  said 


214  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

he,  '  that  inspired  men  are  appointed  to  guide  us,  and 
seeing  that  they  cannot  reach  all  by  their  living  voice,  I 
believe  that  the  evangelists  and  apostles  are  to  furnish  us 
with  writings  which  shall  be  inspired  disclosures  of  God's 
will  and  our  duty.  The  Old  Testament  is  as  truly  God's 
word  as  ever  ;  Christ  declared  that  not  one  jot  or  tittle 
should  pass  from  it,  till  all  be  fulfilled.  Some  of  it  is 
fulfilled,  in  him,  the  end  of  the  types  ;  parts  of  it  refer 
to  local  and  temporary  things  ;  all  which  is  not  local  and 
temporary  is  still  binding  upon  us.  At  least,  the  spirit 
of  its  laws  is  benevolent  and  wise.  Damascus  and  its 
scenes  are  too  fresh  in  the  memories  of  the  brethren  to 
need  that  I  should  argue  the  inspiration  of  the  Apostle  to 
the  Gentiles.  His  miracles  are  known  to  us.  Nay,  what 
miracles  are  we  ourselves,  reclaimed  from  the  service  of 
the  devil,  once  the  worshippers  of  Bacchus  and  of  our 
Phrygian  mother ;  now,  clothed,  and  in  our  right  minds. 
The  Apostle  claims  to  speak  and  act  by  divine  authority. 
We  must  question  everything,  if  we  set  aside  this  claim. 

"  '  I  maintain,'  said  he,  *  that  the  Apostle  Paul  regards 
the  holding  a  fellow-creature  as  property  to  be  consis 
tent  with  Christianity.  To  prevent  all  misunderstanding, 
however,  let  me  declare  that  he  insists  on  the  golden  rule 
as  the  law  of  slave-holding,  as  of  everything  else ;  that 
he  discountenances  oppression,  that  he  warns  and  threat 
ens  us  with  regard  to  it ;  and  that  he  considers  slave- 
holding  as  consistent  with  the  Christian  character  and 
happiness  of  master  and  slave. 

"  *  In  the  very  Epistle  just  received  by  our  Church,  and 
by  the  hands  of  Tychicus  and  Onesimus  himself,  from 
the  Apostle,  we  find  these  words :  "  Servants,  obey  in  all. 
things  your  masters  according  to  the  flesh  ;  not  with  eye- 
service,  as  men-pleasers,  but  in  singleness  of  heart,  fear- 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  215 

ing  God ;  and  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it  heartily,  as  unto 
the  Lord,  and  not  unto  men,  knowing  that  of  the  Lord  ye 
shall  receive  the  reward  of  the  inheritance  :  for  ye  serve 
the  Lord  Christ.  But  he  that  doeth  wrong  shall  receive 
for  the  wrong  which  he  hath  done  ;  and  there  is  no  re 
spect  of  persons.  Masters,  give  unto  your  servants  that 
which  is  just  and  equal ;  knowing  that  ye  also  have  a 
Master  in  heaven." 

" '  Where,  in  this,  is  there  a  word  that  countenances 
the  wrongfulness  of  being  a  slave,  or  of  holding  men  as 
slaves?  He  directs  all  his  exhortations  to  the  duties 
which  are  to  be  performed  in  the  relation,  and  he  leaves 
the  relation  as  he  finds  it.  He  does  not  enjoin  slavery ; 
he  treats  it  as  something  which  belongs  to  society,  to  gov 
ernment,  and  he  leaves  Christianity  to  regulate  it  as  cir 
cumstances  shall  make  it  proper.  If  any  one  says  that 
the  Apostle  was  afraid  to  meddle  with  it,  I  reply,  that 
there  was  never  anything  yet  that  Paul  was  afraid  to 
meddle  with,  if  it  was  right  to  do  so.  He  "  meddled  '* 
with  Diana  of  the  Ephesians  and  her  craftsmen  ;  he 
"  meddled  "  with  the  "  beasts  "  there  ;  he  "  meddled  "  with 
idolatry  on  Mars  Hill  at  Athens,  I  being  witness ;  he  has 
been  beaten,  stoned,  imprisoned,  and  is  now  the  second 
time  before  Nero  for  his  life.  Afraid  to  "  meddle  "  with 
slavery  !  I  am  ashamed  of  the  man  who  makes  the  sug 
gestion.  He  who  thinks  it,  has  never  yet  understood  him. 

"  '  Now,  where  in  all  his  teachings  has  he  ever  inti- 
mate'd  that  it  is  wrong  to  hold  property  in  man  ?  No 
where  ;  I  repeat  it,  nowhere.  But  is  he  ignorant  of  the 
nature  of  slavery  ?  We  all  know  what  has  lately  hap 
pened  at  Rome,  in  connection  with  slavery.  The  very 
year  that  Paul  arrives  at  Rome,  the  prefect  of  the  city, 
Pedanius  Secundus,  was  murdered  by  his  slave  ;  and 


21 G  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

agreeably  to  the  laws  of  slavery  all  the  slaves  belong 
ing  to  the  prefect,  a  great  number,  women  and  children 
among  them,  were  put  to  death  indiscriminately,  though 
innocent  of  the  crime.*  Such  is  slavery  under  the  Apos 
tle's  eye  ;  and  yet' 

"  '  And,  therefore,'  interrupted  the  Laodicean  brother, 
'  the  Apostle  approves  of  murdering  innocent  slaves  for 
the  sin  of  one.  That  is  the  conclusion  to  which  your 
reasoning  will  bring  us.' 

"  '  Excusing  the  brother  for  interrupting  me,  I  ask,  Is 
that  agreeable  to  the  plain  facts  in  the  case  ? '  said  the 
speaker.  '  Are  the  abuses  of  parentage  chargeable  upon 
the  relationship  of  parent  and  child  ?  Moreover,  does 
not  the  Apostle  expressly  teach  us,  in  this  Epistle,  that 
such  things  are  wrong  ?  but  still,  does  he  condemn  the 
relation  of  master  and  slave  ? 

"  '  The  tale  of  that  horrid  butchery  was  present  to  the 
mind  of  the  Apostle  when  he  sends  Onesimus  back  into 
slavery.  Moreover,  he  knew  that  by  our  laws  Philemon 
could  put  Onesimus  to  death ;  yet  he  sends  him  back. 

" '  It  is  said  by  my  brother  that  Paul  enunciated  prin 
ciples  which  in  time  would  kill  slavery,  and  therefore  he 
did  not  care  to  denounce  it,  but  prudently  let  it  alone. 
What  else,  I  inquire,  did  Paul  fail  to  denounce  ?  and 
why  is  this  "enormous  wrong,"  this  "stupendous  injus 
tice,"  alone,  left  to  die,  without  being  attacked  ?  No,  Paul 
treated  slavery  as  he  did  all  other  forms  of  government ; 
he  did  not  denounce  government,  not  even  its  despotic 
forms  ;  for  he  knew  that  a  despotism  may  be  the  best 
form  of  government  in  some  circumstances.  But  he 
gpoke  against  the  abuse  of  power  by  rulers,  and  in  the 

*  Tacitus,  Annals,  xiv.  42.  —A  thrilling  tale.  See  Bohn's  Classical 
Library,  53. 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  217 

same  way  he  speaks  against  the  abuse  of  power  by  the 
master. 

"  *  My  brother  tells  us  that  slavery  is  "  the  sum  of  all 
villanies."  A  comprehensive  term,  truly.  Let  us  admit 
the  correctness  of  the  phrase.  "  All  villanies  "  includes 
all  "  the  works  of  the  flesh,"  and  the  Apostle  enumerates 
the  principal  of  them,  where  he  says,  "  Now  the  works 
of  the  flesh  are  these  ;  "  —  concluding  his  account  with 
the  expression,  "  and  such  like."  With  unsparing  de 
nunciation,  he  portrays  each  and  every  "  villany,"  and 
shows  how  the  wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from  heaven 
against  it. 

"  *  But  while  he  is  thus  bold  and  faithful  with  regard 
to  "  all  villanies "  in  particular,  we  cannot  but  think  it 
strange  that  a  thing  which  is  said  to  be  the  "  sum  "  of 
them  all,  is  nowhere  spoken  against  by  the  Apostle  !  On 
the  contrary,  he  recognizes  the  duties  which  grow  out  of 
slave-holding. 

" v  Let  us  suppose  him  to  do  the  same  with  regard  to 
each  villany  which  he  does  to  that  which  my  brother 
calls  the  "  sum  "  of  them  all.  Then  we  should  hear  him 
say  !  Murderers,  do  so  and  so  ;  thieves,  do  so  and  so ; 
and  ye  that  are  mutilated,  do  so  and  so  ;  and  ye  that  are 
pillaged,  do  so  and  so.  I  am  curious  to  know  how  my 
brother  will  answer  this.  "What  are  the  religious  "  duties  " 
of  murderers  and  thieves,  but  to  repent,  to  forsake  their 
evil  ways  at  once,  and  to  make  lawful  reparation  ?  And 
what  are  the  "  duties  "  of  those  whom  murderers  and 
thieves  assault,  but  to  resist,  and  to  seek  the  conviction 
of  the  evil-doer  ?  Oh  how  strange  it  seems  for  the 
Apostle  to  counsel  masters  and  slaves  to  imitate  their 
"  Master  which  is  in  heaven,"  in  their  relation  to  each 
other,  if  holding  men  in  bondage  be  "  the  sum  of  all  vil- 
10 


218  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

lanies,"  and  how  strange  for  him  to  send  Onesimus  back 
to  the  system  to  behave  in  it  as  Christ  would  act  in  his 
place ! 

"  '  Onesimus  escapes,  we  will  say,  from  a  gang  of  mur 
derers,  or  from  a  company  of  thieves,  and  the  Apostle's 
preaching  is  the  means  of  his  becoming  a  good  man. 
Paul  writes  a  letter  to  the  chief  murderer  of  the  gang, 
or  to  the  captain  of  the  robbers,  sends  Onesimus  back, 
and  "  beseeches  "  the  brigand  for  "  his  son  Onesimus," 
telling  him  that  now  he  receives  him  "  forever,"  and  then 
calls  the  desperado  "  our  dearly  beloved  fellow-laborer  "  ! 
"Why  not,  with  equal  propriety,  if  slavery  be,  necessarily, 
as  our  brother  describes  it  ?  There  is  some  mistake  in 
our  brother's  theory. 

" '  I  venture  to  state  the  distinction  which  I  think  he 
overlooks,  and  which,  if  observed,  will  relieve  his  diffi 
culty.  Paul  never  denounces  government ;  "  the  powers 
that  be  are  ordained  of  God."  He  appeals  to  "  Cresar  " ; 
he  goes  before  "  Nero  "  ;  he  never  counsels  insurrection, 
nor  denounces  government,  in  whatever  hands  or  under 
whatever  forms  it  may  be ;  but  he  enjoins  principles 
and  duties  which,  if  observed,  would  make  "  Caesars," 
even  though  they  be  "  Neros,"  blessings,  and  their  despot 
isms  even  would  cease  to  be  a  curse.  So  with  slave- 
holding.  It  is  incorporated  into  the  state  of  society  ;  it 
is,  moreover,  a  relation  which  can  exist  and  no  sin  be 
committed  under  the  relation  ;  hence,  it  is  not  sin  in 
itself,  any  more  than  the  throne  of  Nero  is  sin  in  itself ; 
and  the  Apostle  speaks  to  the  slave-holding  Philemon  as 
he  would  to  a  father  receiving  back  a  wayward  son. 

"  '  The  claim  of  Philemon  to  Onesimus  rests  only  on 
his  having  purchased  him.  Who  had  a  right  to  sell 
him  ?  Trace  the  thing  back,  and  you  come  to  fraud  or 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  219 

violence,  or  some  form  of  injustice  to  Onesimus  in  mak 
ing  him  a  slave.  Paul  knew  that  this  is  the  case  with 
regard  to  every  slave  ;  yet  he  does  not  "  break  every 
yoke,"  even  when,  as  in  this  case,  he  had  one  so  com 
pletely  in  his  hands,  and  could  have  broken  it  in  pieces. 

" '  But  we  will  suppose,  with  my  brother,  that  the  laws 
which  God  ordained  for  slavery  should  prevail  under 
Christianity,  if  slavery  is  to  exist.  Let  every  Phrygian, 
then,  a  fellow-countryman  who  has  lost  his  liberty,  go 
free  at  the  end  of  six  years  ;  and  at  every  fiftieth  year, 
whether  six  years  be  completed  or  not,  since  the  last 
seventh  year  of  release,  let  all  such  go  free.  This,  for 
argument's  sake,  we  approve.  But  we  must  take  the 
whole  code.  Every  foreigner  who  becomes  a  slave,  and 
the  child  of  every  such  slave,  was  to  be  an  "  inheritance 
forever."  Husbands,  who  are  Phrygians,  must  choose, 
in  certain  cases,  whether  to  go  out  free  by  themselves,  or 
remain  in  perpetual  bondage  with  their  wives  and  their 
offspring.  Paul  knew  the  Jewish  laws  with  regard  to 
slavery  ;  he  knew  how  favorably  they  compared  with 
our  code  ;  but  he  says  not  a  word  on  that  score,  and  sim 
ply  sends  Onesimus  back  to  his  bondage. 

"  *  Yet  see  how  beautifully  the  spirit  of  Christ  works 
itself  into  the  relation  of  master  and  slave,  and  into  Paul's 
views  and  feelings  with  regard  to  it.  In  his  letter  to  our 
Church,  he  expressly  names  Onesimus  as  one  of  the  bear 
ers  of  the  epistle.  He  speaks  of  him  as  "one  of  you,"  a 
resident  with  us  ;  and  he  calls  this  slave  "  a  faithful  and 
beloved  brother."  He  speaks  to  Philemon  about  him  as 
"  my  son  Onesimus  whom  I  have  begotten  in  my  bonds  ;  " 
"  thou  therefore  receive  him,  that  is,  mine  own  bowels." 
"  Not  now  as  a  servant,  but  above  a  servant,  a  brother 
beloved,  specially  to  me,  but  how  much  more  unto  thee, 


220  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

both  in  the  flesh  and  in  the  Lord."  "  If  thou  count  me, 
therefore,  a  partner,  receive  him  as  myself." 

"  *  What  a  comment  is  this  on  the  words  :  "  In  Christ 
Jesus  there  is  neither  bond  nor  free."  Not  that  there 
shall  be  "  no  bond,"  according  to  the  brother's  interpreta 
tion  ;  for  then  it  would  be  equally  right  to  interpret  the 
other  part  of  the  passage  literally,  —  there  is  no  Jew,  no 
Greek,  and  none  free  !  How  perfectly  does  the  relation 
become  absorbed  by  that  state  of  heart  which  makes  it 
proper  for  Paul  to  say :  "  Art  thou  called  being  a  ser 
vant,  care  not  for  it;  but  if  thou  mayest  be  made  free, 
use  it  rather."  Notwithstanding  this  advice,  he  sends 
back  this  man-servant. 

" '  Paul  might  have  manumitted  Onesimus  by  his  au 
thority  as  an  apostle  ;  this,  however,  would  have  been 
rebellion  against  government,  for  our  laws  recognize 
slavery. 

"  '  My  brother  says  that  the  Hebrew  law  forbade  the 
surrender  of  a  fugitive  slave.  Yes,  if  the  slave  fled  into 
Israel  from  a  heathen  master,  he  must  not  be  sent  back 
to  heathenism  ;  but ' 

"  '  But,'  said  the  brother  from  Laodicea,  '  there  is  no 
limitation  of  that  kind.  I  insist  that  it  was  of  universal 
application  to  slaves  of  all  kinds.' 

" '  Find  the  passage,  if  you  please  (in  Deut.  xxiii.),' 
said  the  Colossian  speaker. 

"  The  passage  was  found  by  the  pastor,  and  was  read, 
as  already  quoted:  'Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his 
master  the  servant  that  is  escaped  from  his  master  unto 
thee.  He  shall  dwell  with  thee  even  among  you,  in  that 
place  which  he  shall  choose  in  one  of  thy  gates  where 
it  liketh  him  best ;  thou  shalt  not  oppress  him.'  Deut. 
xxiii.  10,  15. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  221 

"  *  Now,'  said  Theodotus,  '  it  is  absurd  to  say  that  God 
proclaimed  to  all  the  servants  throughout  Israel,  If  any 
of  you  are  dissatisfied,  for  any  cause,  and  wish  to  run 
away,  you  may  do  so  ;  and  wherever  you  wish  to  live, 
the  people  of  that  place  shall  provide  a  residence  for 
you.  After  being  there  for  ever  so  short  a  time,  if  you 
do  not  like  it,  you  may  flee  again  ;  and  so  keep  moving 
all  your  lifetime,  the  people  everywhere  being  obliged  to 
allow  you  a  place  of  abode.  Did  the  Most  High  mean 
to  encourage  such  vagabondism? 

"  '  No  ;  He  merely  provided  that  a  fugitive  from  a 
heathen  master  should  not  be  sent  away  from  the  wor 
ship  of  Jehovah  into  heathenism/ 

" « That  is  undoubtedly  the  true  meaning,'  said  the 
pastor,  '  if  Theodotus  will  allow  me  to  put  in  a  word. 
"  Thee,"  in  that  passage,  means  Israel  as  a  nation,  not 
each  man/ 

" '  I  thank  you,  Sir,'  said  Theodotus  ;  *  and  now  I 
maintain  that  the  injunction  not  to  give  up  a  fugitive  to 
his  heathen  master,  but  to  keep  him  in  Israel,  is  a  pow 
erful  argument  in  favor  of  retaining  slaves  where  they 
will  be  most  benefited  in  their  spiritual  concerns.  God 
thus  makes  the  soul  of  man  and  its  eternal  welfare  para 
mount  to  all  external  relations,  including  slavery.' 

"  '  May  I  inquire,  then,'  said  the  Laodicean  :  *  Suppose 
that  Philemon  had  been  a  cruel  heathen  master,  and 
Onesimus  had  fled  for  his  life,  would  Paul  have  sent 
him  back  ? ' 

"  '  If  the  case  were  clear  and  beyond  doubt,  I  am  not 
sure  that  he  would,'  said  Theodotus.  '  While  he  would 
not  counsel  Onesimus  to  run  away,  yet  I  can  only  say, 
that,  fleeing  from  certain  cruelty  and  death,  I  doubt  if  he 
would  have  been  remanded.  But  Paul  told  servants  to 


222  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

be  "  subject  to  their  masters,"  "  not  only  to  the  good  and 
gentle,  but  also  to  the  froward."  He  speaks  to  them  of 
"  suffering  wrongfully  ;  "  of  "  doing  well,  and  suffering  for 
it ; "  and  he  refers  the  suffering  slave  to  Christ,  "  who, 
when  he  was  reviled,  reviled  not  again  ;  when  he  suf 
fered,  threatened  not."  Moreover,  he  says  :  "  For  even 
hereunto  were  ye  called ;  because  Christ  also  suffered  for 
us,  leaving  us  an  example  that  ye  should  follow  his 
steps."  That  is  certainly  death/ 

" '  If  Paul  did  not  send  Onesirnus  back  to  Philemon, 
however,  it  would  not  be  because  it  was  wrong,  in  his 
view,  for  Philemon  to  hold  him  in  bondage ;  please  ob 
serve  this  distinction  ;  but,  judging  the  case  by  itself, 
he  would  decide  whether  the  slave  ought  not,  under  the 
circumstances,  to  have  the  right  of  asylum,  —  Paul  him 
self  having  once  been  "  let  down  by  a  basket,"  to  escape 
from  the  Damascenes.  Paul  and  any  other  man  would, 
in  certain  cases,  protect  even  a  fugitive  son  or  daughter 
from  a  father  ;  and  this  consistently  with  his  recognition 
of  the  parental  and  filial  relation. 

"  '  Let  me  remind  my  brother,  and  you,  my  pastor,  and 
my  brethren,  of  one  fact  which  occurs  to  me  at  the  moment. 
Manslayers,  in  cities  of  refuge,  were  to  go  free  at  the 
death  of  the  High  Priest  then  in  office  ;  no  such  release, 
however,  was  granted  to  the  Gentile  slaves,  showing  that 
slavery  was  not  a  crime  in  the  estimation  of  the  Most 
High.  Otherwise,  He  would  have  legislated  for  the  de 
parture  of  slaves  from  their  Hebrew  masters,  as  He  did 
for  manslayers  fleeing  from  the  avenger  of  blood.  Ex 
cuse  the  digression.  The  thought  struck  me  at  the  mo 
ment.' 

" '  I  put  it  to  the  brother,'  said  the  Laodicean, '  whether 
he  himself  would  not  flee  to  Rome,  were  he  a  single  man, 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  223 

if  he  should  be  made  a  slave  to  that  monster  in  human 
shape,  Osander  of  Hieropolis  ?  ' 

"  *  I  cannot  say,'  replied  the  Colossian, '  what  my  temp 
tations  might  be,  nor  how  well  I  should  resist  them  ;  but 
slavery  being  incorporated  into  the  government,  and  I 
being,  in  the  providence  of  God,  sold  into  bondage  to 
Osander,  —  I  being  either  the  child  of  a  slave,  or  one  of 
those  who  are  called  "  lawful  captives,"  —  my  race,  or  my 
capture  in  war,  or  my  indebtedness,  or  my  crimes,  subject 
ing  me  to  bondage  according  to  the  constitution  of  govern 
ment,  I  ought  to  consider  my  slavery  as  the  mode  which 
God  had  chosen  for  me  to  glorify  him,  —  by  my  spirit  and 
temper,  by  my  words  and  conduct,  by  my  Christian  ex 
ample  in  everything,  for  the  good  of  Osander's  soul,  and 
the  honor  of  religion.  I  believe  that  I  should  please  God 
more  by  staying  to  suffer,  and  even  to  die,  than  to  run 
away.  I  doubt  even  the  expediency  of  running  away, 
as  a  general' rule.  It  implies  a  want  of  faith.  He  is 
the  Christian  hero  who  stays  where  God  has  manifestly 
placed  him. 

"  '  I  know,'  continued  he,  '  how  easy  it  is  to  make 
this  appear  ridiculous  ;  and  also  how  often  cases  occur 
in  which  flight,  and  even  the  taking  of  life,  are  proper, 
under  extreme  hardships.  It  is  frequently  the  case  that 
a  servant  sees  and  feels  his  mental  superiority  to  the  man 
who  owns  him.  Now  one  may  be  so  disgusted,  and  be  so 
constantly  vexed  and  chafed  at  this,  as  to  make  out  a 
strong  case  for  escaping ;  another,  in  the  same  circum 
stances,  will  feel  that  God  has  placed  him  in  charge  of 
his  master's  soul,  to  please  him  well  in  all  things  though 
he  be  "froward."  Whether  is  better,  to  run  off  or  to 
"  abide  "  ?  There  can  be  no  doubt  how  the  Apostle  would 
answer  the  question.  Exceptional  cases  of  extreme  dis- 


224  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

tress  do  not  make  a  rule ;  the  rule  is  for  each  one  to 
"  abide  "  in  the  calling  in  which  he  is  called  of  God.  See 
what  perfect  insubordination  would  everywhere  follow 
if  every  one  who  is  oppressed,  or  believes  himself  to  be 
oppressed,  should  flee :  children  would  desert  their  par 
ents  ;  husbands  and  wives  would  flee  from  each  other, 
at  any  supposed  or  real  grievance.  This  is  not  the 
Christian  rule.  Patience  and  all  long-suffering,  obe 
dience,  endurance,  committing  one's  self  to  him  that  judg- 
eth  righteously,  is  the  temper  and  spirit  of  the  Gospel. 
This  is  the  tone-note  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  At 
the  same  time,  who  blames  or  judges  harshly  a  man  in 
peril  of  his  life  if,  in  self-defence,  he  flees  ?  I  say  that 
Paul  would  probably  judge  every  fugitive  slave  case  by 
itself.  One  thing  is  clear :  It  is  not  his  rule  to  help  a 
fugitive  from  slavery  in  his  flight,  as  a  matter  of  course. 
His  rule  is  evidently  the  reverse  of  this.  I  cannot  argue 
with  regard  to  the  exceptions.  They  generally  provide 
each  for  itself.  The  New  Testament  rule  is  for  slaves 
not  to  run  away  ;  and  for  us,  and  for  all  men,  not  to  en 
courage  them  to  do  so ;  but  to  encourage  them  to  return, 
and  to  deal  with  the  masters  on  such  principles,  and  in 
such  a  fraternal,  affectionate  way,  that  the  appeals  to  their 
Christian  sensibilities  may  permanently  affect  their  con 
sciences  and  hearts. 

"  '  I  stand  by  the  record.  Let  me  forsake  it,  and  I  am 
like  Paul's  ship  when  it  was  driving  up  and  down  m 
Adria,  and  neither  sun  nor  stars  appeared.  My  im 
pulses  were  not  given  me  as  my  guide.  They  are  to 
be  compared  with  the  divine  will.  Many  questions  may 
be  asked  which  I  cannot  answer,  and  many  difficulties 
encompass  this  subject  of  slave-holding  which  I  cannot 
solve.  I  abide  by  the  example  and  teachings  of  inspired 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  225 

men,  and  am  safe  in  following  them,  even  if  I  cannot 
explain  everything  connected  with  their  principles  and 
conduct  to  the  satisfaction  of  others.  I  only  know  that 
if  our  masters  and  servants  would  take  the  Apostle 
Paul's  Epistle  to  Philemon  as  the  rule  of  their  spirit  and 
life,  there  would  be  no  such  thing  as  oppression,  nor  fugi 
tive  servants.  Now,  as  to  revolutionizing  society  to 
eradicate  slavery,  I  would  no  more  attempt  it  than  I 
would  try  to  dig  down  Cadmus  to  dislodge  yonder  snow 
and  ice  upon  his  top.  The  sun  will  in  due  time  melt 
them  and  pour  them  into  the  Lycus  and  the  Moeander. 
So  the  Gospel,  when  it  has  free  course,  will  dissolve 
every  chain,  break  every  yoke,  and  sorrow  and  sighing 
shall  rice  away.' 

"  Philemon  was  now  the  first  to  rise. 

" '  I  am  the  master  to  whom  Paul  the  Apostle  sends 
back  my  fugitive  servant.  This  man,  Onesimus,  is  my 
brother  in  Christ ;  in  heaven,  it  may  be,  I  shall  see  him 
far  above  me  as  a  faithful  servant  of  our  common  Lord. 
He  has  given  a  proof  of  obedience  to  the  Gospel,  of 
submission,  of  patience  and  long  suffering,  of  implicit 
compliance  with  the  rules  of  Christ,  which  excite  my 
Christian  emulation.  My  endeavor  shall  be  to  imitate 
Onesimus  as  he  has  imitated  Christ,  and  to  surpass  him 
in  likeness  to  that  Lord  who  is  rneek  and  lowly  in  heart. 
The  bonds  which  hold  Onesimus  to  me  are  no  stronger 
than  those  which  bind  me  to  him.  (Great  sensation  and 
much  emotion.)  Can  I  ever  treat  this  servant  in  an  un 
feeling  manner  ?  Can  I  recklessly  sell  him  ?  Can  I 
deprive  him  of  comforts  ?  Can  I  fail  to  provide  for  his 
highest  happiness  ?  God  do  so  to  me  and  more  also,  if  I 
prove  deficient  in  these  particulars. 
10* 


22  G  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

" '  Let  me  ask,  What  would  be  the  state  of  things 
among  us  if  the  benign  influences  of  Christian  love  per 
vaded  every  case  of  slave-holding  as,  by  the  grace  of 
God,  I  hope  it  will  in  my  case  ?  We  must  have  a  serv 
ing  class  ;  our  customs  and  laws  ordain  the  relationship 
of  involuntary  servitude,  property  in  the  services  of 
others,  by  purchase  of  their  persons.  While  this  is  so, 
suppose  that  every  servant  is  an  Onesimus  and  every 
master  such  as  I  ought  to  be,  under  the  influence  of  the 
Apostle  Paul's  directions !  It  is  plain  that  in  no  way  can 
we  better  promote  the  spiritual  and  eternal  good  of  cer 
tain  men,  as  the  times  are,  than  by  standing  in  the  relation 
of  Christian  masters  to  them.  This  is  the  great  thing 
with  Paul.  We  can  mitigate  the  sorrows  of  their  bond 
age  ;  we  can  compensate  for  the  appointments  of  provi 
dence  reducing  them  to  slavery,  by  making  them  the  free 
men  of  Christ.  While  this  state  of  things  continues,  it 
may  be  a  blessing  to  both  parties.  God  will  open  a  way 
for  any  change  which  he  decrees  in  our  social  relation,  in 
his  own  time  and  manner. 

" '  Now,  let  us  suppose  what  would  happen  if,  depart 
ing  from  the  rule  and  example  of  Paul,  we  follow  the 
counsels  of  our  good  brother  from  Laodicea.  The  com 
munity  would  be  in  constant  excitement  by  the  departure 
of  servants  asserting  each  his  natural  liberty ;  laws 
would  become  rigid ;  hardships  would  be  multiplied ; 
cruelties  would  be  perpetuated  ;  insurrections  would  be 
come  frequent ;  sacrifices  of  servants,  the  innocent  with 
the  guilty,  would  be  made  to  deter  from  insubordination. 
Instead  of  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  in  our  dwellings,  aliena 
tions,  suspicion,  jealousy,  wrangling,  strife,  and  every 
form  of  evil  would  prevail.  He  is  no  real  friend  of 
servant  or  master  who  would  enforce  the  principles  of 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  227 

our  Laodicean  brother.  I  adhere  to  the  Apostle.  If 
questioned  as  to  my  right  to  hold  Onesimus  in 'bondage, 
the  answer  immediately  suggested  is  that  an  inspired 
Apostle  sanctions  it  in  my  case.  If  right  in  my  case, 
it  is  right  in  principle  ;  for  if  slave-holding  be  a  violation 
of  rights,  I  am  guilty  of  that  violation,  however  humane 
a  master  I  may  be.  The  Apostle  does  not  reprove  me, 
nor  require  me  to  manumit  Onesimus,  but  tells  me  that  I 
now  receive  him  "  forever,"  and  he  teaches  me  how  to  treat 
him.  I  could  occupy  your  time  by  arguing  the  abstract 
question  relating  to  property  in  the  services  of  men,  — 
but  I  rest  my  case  for  the  present  on  the  letter  of  Paul 
the  Apostle,  brought  to  me  by  the  hand  of  my  fugitive 
servant,  returning  to  what  the  laws  call  his  bonds. 

"  *  Let  me  add  a  few  words,  however,  on  the  general 
subject,  to  the  argument  of  Theodotus. 

"  *  Our  good  brother  from  Laodicea  tells  us  that  sla 
very  and  polygamy  are  "twin  barbarisms."  Pie  argues 
that  slavery  was  winked  at,  like  polygamy ;  was  "  suffered," 
by  the  Most  High.  But  I  propose  to  refute  this,  and  I 
will  throw  myself  on  your  candor  to  judge  if  I  succeed. 

" '  God,  in  Eden,  appointed  the  marriage  of  one  man 
and  one  woman  to  be  the  law  of  matrimony.  "  And 
wherefore  one  ?  "  says  the  prophet.  "  He  had  the  residue 
of  the  spirit,"  and  could  have  ordained  otherwise.  "Where 
fore  one  ?  "  The  answer  is,  "  that  he  might  seek  a  godly 
seed."  The  arrangement  was  for  the  highest  elevation 
of  the  race. 

" '  Polygamy  is  in  direct  conflict  with  the  ordinance  of 
God.  Of  course  God  never  ordained  it.  On  the  con 
trary,  the  appointment  in  Eden  was  equivalent  to  a  pro 
hibitory  act,  which  Jesus  Christ  revived,  forbidding  po 
lygamy,  and  the  Apostles  have  enjoined  upon  us  that  we 
observe  the  law  of  marriage  as  given  in  paradise. 


228  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  '  So  much  for  polygamy.  God  never  recognized  it. 
The  edict  requiring  the  marriage  of  a  childless  widow  to 
the  brother  of  her  husband,  takes  it  for  granted  that  a 
man  would  leave  but  one  widow. 

"  '  But  how  is  it  with  slavery  ?  God  never  forbade  it ; 
he  recognized  it ;  when  He  framed  the  Jewish  code  it  was 
perfectly  easy  to  exclude  slavery;  but  hardly  are  the 
Ten  Commandments  out  of  his  lips  when  He  ordains 
slave-holding,  gives  particular  directions  about  it,  -de 
crees  that  certain  persons  shall  be  an  inheritance  forever. 
Jesus  Christ  never  uttered  one  word  against  slavery, 
though  he  did  against  polygamy ;  the  Apostles  have 
never  written  nor  preached  to  us  against  slavery,  but  on 
the  contrary  here  is  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  sending 
back  a  servant  escaped  from  his  master  ;  and  in  that  let 
ter  on  the  pastor's  table  he  enjoins  duties  on  masters  and 
slaves.  I  have  confidence  that  my  brother  will  not  again 
class  slavery  with  polygamy,  for  it  would  be  a  reflection 
upon  divine  wisdom  and  justice. 

" '  One  thing  more.  My  brother  says  slavery  is  the 
sum  of  all  villanies. 

"  '  But  did  not  the  Most  High  God  place  his  people  in 
slavery  for  seventy  years,  in  Babylon  ?  This  does  not 
prove  that  slavery  is  a  good  thing,  in  itself;  for  by  the 
same  proof  heathenism  might  be  shown  to  be  a  blessing. 
Slavery  was  a  curse,  a  punishment ;  but  still,  God  would 
not  have  made  use  of  slavery  to  punish  his  people,  if, 
theoretically  and  practically,  it  is  by  necessity  all 
which  my  brother  alleges.  It  surely  did  not,  in  that 
case,  prove  a  "  villany "  to  Babylon.  They  were  the 
best  seventy  years  of  their  probationary  state,  when  that 
people  held  the  Jews  in  captivity.  Now  I  beg  not  to  be 
misunderstood  nor  to  have  my  meaning  perverted.  I 
am  not  pleading  for  slavery.  I  simply  say  that  God 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  229 

would  not  have  put  his  people,  whom  He  had  not  cast 
off  forever,  into  slavery,  if  slavery,  per  se,  were  the  sura 
of  all  villanies,  or,  if  the  practical  effect  of  it  on  them 
would  be,  necessarily,  destruction,  or  inconsistent  with  his 
purposes  of  benevolence.  I  will  add,  that  every  people 
and  every  man,  who  hold  others  in  bondage,  should  be 
admonished  that  when  God  puts  his  captives,  his  bond 
men,  into  their  hands,  He  is  most  jealous  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  trust  is  discharged.  I  do  think,  I  say  it 
here  with  all  possible  emphasis,  it  is  the  most  delicate, 
the  most  solemn,  the  most  awful  responsibility,  to  stand 
in  the  relation  of  master  to  a  bondman. 

"  No  further  discussion  was  had  at  that  time,  the  hour 
being  late,  and  so  the  meeting  was  closed  with  prayer  and 
singing.  Masters  and  servants  joined  to  chant  a  hymn, 
of  which  the  following,  written  many  years  after  by 
Gregory  of  Nazianzum,  might  almost  seem  to  be  the 
expansion :  — 

"  '  Christ,  my  Lord,  I  come  to  bless  Thee, 

Now  when  day  is  veiled  in  night, 
Thou  who  knowest  no  beginning, 
Light  of  the  eternal  light. 

"  '  Thou^hast  set  the  radiant  heavens, 

With  thy  many  lamps  of  brightness, 

Filling  all  the  vaults  above ; 
Day  and  night  in  turn  subjecting 
To  a  brotherhood  of  service, 

And  a  mutual  law  of  love. 

" '  Own  me,  then,  at  last,  thy  servant, 

When  thou  com'st  in  majesty  ; 
Be  to  me  a  pitying  Father, 

Let  me  find  thy  grace  and  mercy  ; 

And  to  Thee  all  praise  and  glory 
Through  the  endless  ages  be.' 


230  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  Leaning  on  the  arm  of  Onesimus,  Philemon  returned 
to  bless  his  household. 


"  Thus  far,"  said  I,  "  you  have  my  Night  Thoughts." 

I  asked  Mr.  North  if  he  accepted  the  present  New 
Testament  Canon  as  correct  ?  He  said  that  he  did.  I 
then  inquired  if  he  regarded  the  Scriptures  as  the  only 
and  sufficient  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 

To  this  he  also  agreed.  I  then  asked  him  if  he  did  not 
think  that,  in  making  up  the  canon,  that  is,  in  directing 
what  books  and  epistles  should  go  into  it,  God  had  refer 
ence  to  the  wants  of  all  coming  times  ?  He  signified  his 
assent.  I  then  asked  his  attention  to  a  few  thoughts  con 
nected  with  that  point. 

"  Plere  is  the  Epistle  to  Philemon,  placed  by  the  hand 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  himself  in  the  Sacred  Canon.  It  is 
on  a  small  piece  of  parchment,  easily  lost ;  the  wind 
might  have  blown  it  from  Philemon's  table  out  of  the 
window,  beyond  recovery;  it  was  not  addressed  to  a 
Church,  to  be  kept  in  its  archives ;  it  is  a  private  letter, 
subject  to  every  change  in  the  condition  of  a  private  citi 
zen.  Yet,  while  the  epistle  to  Laodicea,  sent  about  the 
same  time,  is  irrecoverably  lost,  this  little  writing,  ad 
dressed  to  a  private  man,  goes  into  the  Bible,  by  direction 
of  God  ! 

"Do  you  not  suppose,"  said  I,  "  that  God  had  a  mean 
ing  in  this  beyond  merely  informing  us  how  a  master  re 
ceived  a  servant  back  to  bondage  ?  " 

"  What  further  purpose  do  you  think  there  was  in  it?" 
said  he. 

"  I  only  know,"  said  I,  "  that  slave-holding  was  to  be  a 
subject,  as  has  proved  to  be  the  case,  which  would  involve 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  231 

the  interests  of  at  least  two  of  the  continents  of  the  earth, 
one  of  them  being  then  unknown.  Here  the  Church  of 
God  was  to  have  large  increase.  Here,  too,  slavery  was 
to  exist,  and  to  thrill  the  hearts  of  millions  of  citizens 
from  generation  to  generation.  It  is  very  remarkable 
that  one  book  of  the  Bible,  which  was  to  be  made  known 
to  all  nations  by  the  commandment  of  the  everlasting 
God,  for  the  obedience  of  faith,  should  be  exclusively  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  and  that  the  whole  burden  of  the 
Epistle  should  be,  The  Rendition  of  a  Fugitive  Slave ! " 

"  This  never  occurred  to  me  before,"  said  Mr.  North. 

"  Suppose,"  said  I,  "  that  instead  of  sending  back  Ones- 
imus,  the  epistle  had  been  a  private  letter  from  Archip- 
pus  at  Colosse  to  Paul  at  Rome,  clandestinely  aiding 
Onesimus  to  escape  from  Philemon,  and  that  Paul  had 
received  Onesimus,  and  had  harbored  him,  and  had  sent 
him  forth  as  a  missionary,  and  that  not  one  word  of  com 
ment  had  appeared  in  the  Bible  discountenancing  the 
act.  What  would  have  happened  then  ?" 

"  Then,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  one  thing  is  certain ;  the 
business  of  running  off  slaves  to  Canada  would  now  have 
been  more  brisk  even  than  it  is  at  present." 

"Why?"  said  I. 

"  Simply  because,"  said  she,  "  the  New  Testament  would 
have  sanctioned  the  practice  of  running  off  slaves." 

"  Why,  then,"  said  I,  "  does  it  not  now  equally  coun 
tenance  the  *  running '  of  slaves  back  to  their  masters  ?  " 

"  Please  answer  that  for  me,  husband,"  said  Mrs. 
North. 

He  smiled,  and  rose  to  put  some  coal  on  the  fire.  We 
waited  for  his  words. 

"  Well,"  said  he,  "  I  do  not  know  but  it  is  all  right, 
provided  the  master  be  in  each  case  a  Philemon." 


232  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  That  is  a  good  word,"  said  I.  "  You  show  that  the 
Bible  has  an  ascendency  in  your  mind.  You  will  be  safe 
in  following  the  Bible  wherever  it  leads  you,  even  into 
slave-holding,  if  it  goes  so  far.  But  I  must  now  ques 
tion  you  a  little.  You  may  answer  me  or  not,  as  you 
please. 

"  One  day  a  black  man  appears  at  your  door,  and  says, 
1 1  have  just  escaped  from  the  South.  I  was  owned  by 
Rev.  Professor  A.  B.  of  New  Orleans.  I  preferred  lib 
erty  to  slavery,  and  here  I  am.'  Would  you  shelter  him, 
and  encourage  his  remaining  here,  and,  if  necessary,  send 
him  to  Canada  ?  " 

"  What  would  you  have  me  do  ?  "  said  he. 

"  Take  him  in,"  said  I,  "  if  you  please,  and  give  him 
some  breakfast.  You  would  not  object  to  this.  After 
breakfast  you  have  family  prayers.  '  Can  you  read, 
Nesimus?'  you  inquire.  (O  yes,  master;  missis  and  the 
young  missises  taught  us  all  to  read/  Your  little  boy 
hands  him,  with  the  rest,  a  Testament,  and  names  the 
place  of  reading.  Strange  to  say,  yesterday  you  finished 
'  Titus,'  and  the  portion  to  be  read  in  course  is  '  Phile 
mon!'" 

"  Almost  a  providence,"  said  Mrs.  North. 

"  How  would  you  feel,  Mr.  North  ?  "  said  I. 

"Why,  feel?  How  should  I  feel?"  said  he.  "You 
will  answer  for  me,  perhaps,  and  say,  '  Read  Philemon  ; 
pray ;  and  then  say,  Come,  Nesimus,  I  am  going  to  send 
you  back  to  Professor  A.  B.  I  will  write  a  letter  to  him, 
and  pay  your  passage.' " 

"  What  objection  would  you  make  to  this  ?  "  said  I. 

He  thought  a  moment,  and  in  the  meanwhile  his 
shrewd  wife  said, — 

"  Why,  husband,  do  you  hesitate  ?     Say  this  :  '  What ! 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  233 

I  ?  and  Bunker  Hill  within  a  day's  march  of  my  house, 
and  grandfather's  old  sword  over  my  library  door  ? ' ' 

<;  I  am  sick  of  hearing  about  Bunker  Hill  in  this  con 
nection,"  said  lie.  "  Any  one  would  think  that  it  is  one 
of  the  '  sacred  mountains  '  in  Holy  Writ." 

"  But,"  said  his  wife,  "  If  some  of  Paul's  ancestors  had 
had  Bunker  Hill  privileges  and  influences,  do  you  think 
Paul  would  have  written  the  Epistle  to  Philemon  ?  Un 
fortunate  Apostle  !  Say,"  said  his  wife  again,  before  he 
spoke,  "  that  you  believe  in  progress,  that  that  epistle 
might  have  been  right  enough  in  its  day,  but  that  now 
*  we  need  an  anti-slavery  Bible  and  an  anti-slavery 
God.' " 

She  made  up  a  very  expressive  smile  as  she  said  it 
and  stretched  her  work  across  her  knee. 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  "  the  Bible  is  antiquated !  God  never 
gave  a  written  revelation  to  be  a  perpetual  guide  to  the 
end  of  time  !  I  can  supersede  the  Epistle  to  Philemon  : 
Mrs.  North,  Hebrews  ;  you,  James ;  and  another  the 
whole  of  the  Old  Testament." 

"  Now,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  I  will  tell  you  what  I  have 
been  thinking  of  all  this  time. 

"  I  will  put  you  into  bondage  in  Algiers  or  Tunis. 
Somebody  has  bought  you  or  captured  you.  But  by 
some  means  you  escape  to  me  at  Gibraltar.  Now  I  will 
read  '  Philemon '  to  you,  and  send  you  back  to  your 
Algerine  master.  What  objection  can  you  make  to  this, 
as  a  believer  in  inspiration  ?  " 

I  answered,  "  If  I  were  a  slave  in  my  own  country,  and 
slavery  existed  in  Algiers,  you  would  need  to  consider 
the  relation  which  existed  between  this  country  and  Al 
giers.  If  the  governments  had  treaties  with  each  other, 
the  surrender  of  persons  held  to  service  in  either  of  the 


234  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

countries  would  probably  be  provided  for,  and  then  you 
would  have  to  consider  whether  you  would  obey  what  is 
called  the  '  higher  law,'  or  yield  me  to  the  requisition  of 
the  proper  authorities.  This  brings  up  the  question  of 
the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves,  which  we  have  just  con 
sidered. 

"  But  being  free  in  my  own  country,  and  having  been, 
therefore,  unlawfully  sold  into  Algerine  Slavery,  or  hav 
ing  been  captured,  or  stolen,  you  would,  I  trust,  make 
proper  resistance  in  my  behalf." 

"  But,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  The  ancestors  of  my  fugitive 
friend  Nesimus,  were  taken  from  freedom  in  their  own 
land  and  were  reduced  to  slavery.  Must  he  and  his 
descendants  be  slaves  forever  for  the  sin  of  the  original 
captors,  or  for  the  misfortune  of  his  ancestors  ? " 

"  Birth  in  slavery  long  established  makes  all  the  dif 
ference  in  the  world,  Mr.  North,"  said  I.  "  If  I  am  born 
in  slavery,  under  a  government  ordaining  slavery,  that  is 
a  different  case  from  that  of  one  taken  out  of  a  passenger 
ship  and  sold  as  a  slave." 

"  Then  if  you  and  your  wife,"  said  he,  "  were  taken  out 
of  a  passenger  ship,  and  you  should  happen  to  have  a 
child  born  in  slavery,  that  child  must  remain  a  slave,  even 
if  you  go  free  ?  " 

"  No,  Sir,"  said  I ;  "  the  child  born  under  such  circum 
stances  is  as  rightfully  free  as  its  parents.  But  take  this 
case  :  I,  being  captured  and  held  as  a  slave,  my  master 
gives  me  a  wife,  lawfully  a  slave.  Then,  the  child  born 
of  her  is  lawfully  a  slave.  You  see  the  distinction.  God 
recognized  it.  The  condition  of  both  is  a  limitation  and 
qualification  of  natural  rights.  So  the  lapse  of  time 
qualifies  the  right  to  collect  debts,  bring  suits  for  libel,  or 
slander,  and  for  the  right  of  way,  or  for  the  possession  of 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  235 

land.     Will  we  live  under  law  ?  or  shall  each  man  or  any 
set  of  men  set  up  laws  for  their  own  conscience  ?  " 

"  Then,"  said  he,  "  If  a  slave-trader  lands  a  cargo  of 
slaves  from  Africa,  at  Florida,  I  have  no  right  to  buy 
them  ;  they  are  not  lawfully  slaves.  Is  that  your  belief?" 

"  Assuredly,"  said  I ;  "  and  if  the  fugitive  whom  I 
have  supposed  you  to  be  sending  back  to  the  gentleman 
at  New  Orleans,  were  a  fugitive  from  the  cargo  just  im 
ported  from  Africa,  you  would  be  sustained  by  the  law 
of  the  land  in  delivering  him  from  bondage ;  he  was  pirati- 
cally  taken ;  the  laws  would  make  him  free,  and  punish 
his  captors,  if  the  laws  were  faithfully  executed." 

"  But  a  poor  fellow  born  in  slavery  must  remain  a 
slave  !  "  he  replied. 

"  He  is  not  lawfully  a  slave,"  I  said,  "  if  his  parents 
were  both  of  that  cargo.  But  if  his  father  had  received 
a  wife  from  his  master,  then  the  child  is  lawfully  a  slave." 

"  How  do  you  establish  that  distinction  ?  "  said  he. 

"  The  child  is  born  of  one  known  to  be,  herself,  lawfully 
a  slave.  It  is  born  under  a  constitution  of  government 
which  recognizes  slavery ;  while  that  government  pro 
vides  for  slavery,  the  child  must  submit  or  violate  an  or 
dinance  of  God,  unless  freedom  can  be  had  by  law,  or  by 
justifiable  revolution." 

"I  feel  constrained,"  said  Mr.  North,  "to  hold  that 
liberty  is  the  inalienable  right  of  every  human  being,  ex 
cept  in  cases  of  crime." 

"  You  mean,"  said  I,  "  that  every  human  being  is  enti 
tled  to  all  the  civil  rights  and  immunities  which  others 
enjoy." 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  in  proportion  to  his  age,  and  his  ca 
pacity.  Minors,  and  the  imbecile,  are  entitled  to  protec 
tion,  but  may  not  be  oppressed." 


236  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  Ah,"  said  I,  "  how  soon  you  find  your  general  rules 
intercepted  and  qualified  by  circumstances.  Minors, 
and  the  imbecile,  then,  may  not  be  admitted  to  equal 
privileges  with  us.  But  are  not  all  men  born  free  and 
equal  ?  " 

"  Now  let  me  add  to  '  minors '  and  '  the  imbecile  '  one 
more  class.  There  are  two  races  existing  together  in  a 
certain  country.  One  has  always  been,  there,  a  servile 
race.  The  other  are  the  lords  of  the  soil ;  the  institutions 
of  the  country  are  by  their  creation  ;  •  they  have  acquired  a 
perfect  right  and  title  to  the  government. 

"  You  know,  from  all  history,  that  two  races  never  could, 
and  never  did  live  together  on  the  same  soil,  unless  they 
intermarried,  or  one  was  subject  to  the  other.  You  ad 
mit  this  historical  fact. 

"It  is  proposed,  now,  by  some,  to  give  the  subject  race  a 
right  to  vote  and  to  hold  office,  so  that  their  equality  in  all 
things  shall  be  acknowledged." 

"  Pray,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  will  you  object  to  this  ?  Has 
not  God  (  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  '  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  I  replied,  "  but  read  on,  in  that  same  verse  :  — 
1  and  hath  determined  the  bounds  of  their  habitation.' 
There  is  a  law  of  races ;  races  must  have  antipathies, 
unless  they  intermarry ;  he  who  seeks  to  confound  them 
may  as  well  labor  for  the  conjugation  of  all  the  tribes 
of  animals.  He  and  his  results  would  prove  to  be  mon 
sters. 

"  The  Anglo  Saxon  race  on  this  continent  properly  say 
to  the  Negro,  '  If  by  conquest  you  get  possession  of  the 
land,  we  must,  of  course,  succumb  to  you.  We  are  now 
in  possession,  and  mean  so  to  continue.  Hard,  therefore,  as 
it  seems  not  to  let  you  vote  in  parts  of  the  country  where 
your  numbers  are  such  as  to  endanger  our  majority,  or 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  237 

afford  temptation  to  demagogues  to  inflame  your  prej 
udices  and  passions  by  historical  appeals  to  them,  and 
severe  as  it  may  seem  not  to  let  you  form  military  com 
panies,  (which  would  also  be  mischievous  in  the  same 
way)  we  nevertheless  propose  to  exclude  you  from  this 
right  of  suffrage,  and  from  separate  organizations,  for 
our  own  defence,  and  that  we  may  preserve  our  institu 
tions  for  our  proper  descendants.  We  are  very  sorry 
that  our  English  ancestors  began  to  impose  you  upon  u>, 
and  that  Newport  and  Salem  vessels  brought  so  many  of 
you  here  into  slavery  ;  but  we  cannot  think  of  requiting 
you  for  this  by  jeoparding  our  own  peace ;  nor  would  it 
be  kind  to  you,  as  things  are,  to  be  made  prominent  in 
any  way  as  a  class.  When  the  Northern  people  are, 
generally,  your  true  friends,  and  cease  to  use  you  in  an 
offensive  manner,  to  excite  civil  war,  we  shall  join  to 
elevate  you  in  every  way  consistent  with  your  true  in 
terests.' 

"  There  will  be  cases  of  extreme  hardship,"  said  I,  "  if 
a  slave,  fleeing  from  the  South,  however  unjustifiably, 
nevertheless  becomes  surrounded  here  with  a  family,  and 
the  owner  comes  and  claims  him.  There  are  principles 
of  natural  humanity  which  come  into  force  at  such  a  time 
to  modify  or  set  aside  a  claim.  I  know,  indeed,  that  to 
build  a  valuable  house  on  land  not  mine,  does  not  vacate 
the  land-owner's  title ;  and,  moreover,  I  know  what  may 
be  alleged  on  the  principle  illustrated  by  Paley,  who 
speaks  of  a  man  finding  a  stick  and  bestowing  labor  on  it 
which  is  more  in  value  than  the  stick  itself.  These  cases 
of  slaves  who  have  gained  a  settlement  here,  call  for  the 
utmost  kindness  and  forbearance  between  the  sectional 
parties  in  controversy  ;  clamor  will  never  settle  them, 
nor  the  sword  ;  but  the  reign  of  good  feeling  will  cause 


238  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

justice  to  flow  down  our  streets  like  a  river,  and  right 
eousness  like  an  overflowing  stream." 

"  As  we  have  conversed  a  good  deal  upon  this  subject," 
said  Mr.  North,  "  perhaps  we  may  bring  our  conversation 
to  a  close  as  profitably  as  in  any  other  way  by  your  telling 
us,  summarily,  what  you  think  of  this  whole  perplexing 
subject ;  what  would  you  have  me  believe  ;  how  ought  a 
Christian  man,  who  desires  to  know  and  do  the  will  of 
God,  to  feel  and  to  act  with  regard  to  it  ?  Good  men,  I 
see,  are  divided  about  it ;  I  respect  your  motives,  I  ap 
prove  many  of  your  principles,  I  cannot  object  to  your 
conclusions,  in  the  main.  Let  us  know  what  you  con 
sider  to  be,  probably,  the  ultimate  issue  of  the  whole 
subject." 

"  I  will  do  so  with  pleasure,"  said  I. 

"But,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  let  us  wait  till  after  dinner." 

"  As  the  storm  is  over,"  I  said  to  her,  "  I  must  go 
home,  but  we  will  have  one  more  council  fire,  if  you 
please,  and  end  the  subject." 

So  in  the  afternoon,  my  kind  friends  gave  me  their  at 
tention  while  I  made  my  summing  up  in  the  next  and 
concluding  chapter. 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  239 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE    FUTURE. 

"  It  is  heaven  upon  earth  to  hare  a  man's  mind  rest  in  providence,  more  in 
charity,  and  turn  upon  the  poles  of  truth." 

LORD  BACON. 

*•  CJL AVERT,  as  human   nature   now  is,   cannot  be 
O  otherwise  than  one  of  the  Almighty's  curses  upon 
any  race  which  is  subject  to  bondage. 

"  True,  it  may  nevertheless,  be  an  amelioration  of  their 
original  state ;  they  may  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  Chris 
tian  people,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them  be  civil 
ized,  and  be  converted  to  Christianity;  redeemed  from 
a  barbarous  condition  they  may  contribute  immensely  to 
the  general  good  of  the  race  both  as  producers  and  con 
sumers.  Wherever  commerce  needs  them,  unquestion 
ably  they  will  do  more  good  to  the  world  by  being  com 
pelled  to  work  than  by  wearing  out  their  miserable  and 
useless  existence  in  Africa. 

u  All  this  may  be  true ;  still,  is  it  not  a  curse  to  be 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  ?  Does  not  God 
say  to  Israel  that  if  they  sin,  they  'shall  be  the  tail 
and  not  the  head  ? '  National  degradation,  exposing  a 
people  to  be  the  prey  and  the  captives  of  a  superior  race, 
is,  of  course,  a  curse,  though,  like  death  itself,  and  even 
sin,  it  may,  by  the  grace  of  God,  turn  to  good.  Still,  it 
is  a  curse. 


240  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  But  in  governing  a  fallen  world  like  ours,  God  now 
and  then  ordains  the  subjection  of  one  race  to  another  ; 
and  he  makes  bondage  one  of  his  ordinances  as  truly  as 
war.  The  extermination  of  the  Canaanites  by  the  sword, 
was  an  ordinance  of  Heaven.  War  is  a  part  of  God's 
method  in  governing  the  world ;  as  well  as  sickness  and 
death. 

"  I  never  had  any  sympathy  for  that  amiable  but  weak 
concern  for  the  character  of  God  which  represents  him 
as  finding  slavery  in  existence  and  merely  legislating 
about  it,  and  doing  the  best  he  can  with  an  inevitable 
evil.  This  view  belongs  to  a  system  which  makes  God, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  the  most  unhappy  Being,  continually 
striving  to  destroy  that  which  sprung  up .  contrary  to  his 
plan.  To  dwell  on  this,  however,  would  lead  us  too  far 
into  theological  questions. 

"  I  tremble  to  think  of  our  responsibility  as  a  nation  in 
being  put  in  charge  of  a  people  with  whom  God  has 
some  terrible  controversy  for  their  own  sins  and  those  of 
their  ancestors. 

"  Through  our  abuse  of  power,  God  may  say  to  us,  '  I 
was  a  little  angry,  and  ye  helped  on  the  affliction.'  God's 
purposes  in  having  the  chastised  nation  afflicted,  will  be 
accomplished,  but  He  will  punish  every  one  who  inflicts 
the  chastisement  with  a  selfish,  unchristian  spirit. 

"  Our  people  generally  take  it  for  granted  that  slavery 
is  like  one  of  the  self-limiting  diseases  of  childhood,  to 
be  outgrown,  and  to  cease  forever,  in  process  of  time, 
and  before  many  years  have  passed  away. 

"  The  ground  of  this  conclusion  is  a  doctrinal  error, 
namely,  that  slave-holding,  the  relation  of  master  and 
servant,  ownership,  property  in  man,  or  by  whatever 
name  slavery  may  be  designated,  is  in  itself  wrong,  and 


THE   SABLE  CLOUD.  241 

that  as  soon  as  practicable  it  will  be  abjured  and  no  man 
will  stand  to  another  in  the  relation  of  master,  or  owner. 
But  whether  for  good  or  for  ill,  slavery  will  be  in  exist 
ence  at  the  last  day.  We  read  that  '  every  bondman 
and  every  freeman '  will  see  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  Man. 
"  But  should  slavery  be  at  any  time,  or  in  any  country, 
or  part  of  a  country,  utterly  extinguished,  it  will  ever 
remain  true  that  ownership,  or  property  in  man  is  not  in 
itself  wrong,  and  that  it  may  be  benevolent  to  all  con 
cerned.  It  is  interesting  to  recollect  that  in  proportion 
as  human  relations  are  cardinal,  or  vital,  they  approach 
most  nearly  to  ownership,  as  in  the  case  of  parent  and 
child.  The  highest  relation  of  all,  that  between  man 
and  God,  finds  its  most  perfect  expression  in  terms  con 
veying  the  idea  of  ownership  on  the  part  of  God.  '  For 
ye  are  not  your  own ;  —  therefore  glorify  God  in  your 
body  and  spirit  which  are  God's.'  If  God  should  send 
one  of  us  to  a  distant  part  of  the  universe,  under  the 
charge  of  an  angel,  where  superior  intelligence  and  wis 
dom  were  needful  for  our  safety  in  temptation  and  amid 
the  bewildering  excitements  of  new  scenes,  ownership  for 
the  time  being,  absolute  dominion  over  us,  on  the  part  of 
the  angel,  would  be  in  the  highest  measure  benevolent. 
In  those  days  when  universal  love  reigns,  ii  is  just  as 
likely  as  not  that  there  will  be  more  'ownership'  in 
man  than  ever  before.  By  ownership  I  mean  such 
relationships  as  we  see  in  the  households  of  those  who 
are  represented  in  the  letter  of  the  Southern  lady  to 
her  father.  There  we  see  the  weak,  the  unfortunate, 
the  dependent  nature  clinging  to  the  stronger,  and 
receiving  support  and  comfort,  and  even  honor,  from 
those  who  in  rendering  kindness  and  in  receiving  ser 
vice  have  their  whole  being  refined  and  cultivated  to  the 
11 


242  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

highest  degree.  There  are  no  rigors  in  those  relation 
ships  ;  everything  which  contributes  to  the  welfare  and 
happiness  of  a  serving  class  is  enjoyed,  and  all  its  liabili 
ties  to  care  and  sorrow  are  removed,  to  as  great  a  degree 
as  ever  happens  in  this  world. 

"  Allowing  that  there  are  always  to  be  inequalities  of 
mind  and  condition,  and  that  what  we  call  menial  services 
will  need  to  be  performed ;  that  there  must  be  those  who 
will  have  a  disposition  and  taste  to  work  over  a  fire  all 
day  and  prepare  food ;  and  that  men  of  business  or  study 
will  not  all  be  able  to  groom  their  own  horses  and  wash 
their  vehicles ;  and  that  possibly  the  Coleridges  and 
Southeys,  and  their  friends  the  Joseph  Cottles,  may, 
from  being  absorbed  in  their  ideal  pursuits,  still  be  igno 
rant  of  the  way  to  get  off  a  collar  from  a  horse's  neck, 
and  must  call  upon  a  servant-girl  to  help  them,  we  shall 
need  those  who  will  be  glad  to  be  servants  forever,  and 
who  will  require  for  their  own  security  that  their  employ 
ers  shall  *  own '  them,  and  thus  be  made  responsible  for 
their  support  and  protection.  This  may  always  be  neces 
sary  for  the  highest  welfare  of  all  concerned.  But  the 
history  of  this  relationship  in  connection  with  our  human 
nature  has  been  such,  to  a  great  extent,  that  we  associate 
with  it  only  the  idea  of  pillage,  oppression,  cruelty.  Al 
ready  there  are  cases  without  number  in  which  no  such 
idea  would  ever  be  suggested  to  a  spectator,  and  they 
will  increase  in  proportion  as  Christianity  prevails. 
There  is  more  real  'freedom'  in  thousands  of  these 
cases  of  nominal  slavery  than  in  thousands  who  are 
nominally  free.  How  did  it  happen  that  the  Hebrew 
servant,  who  chose  to  stay  with  his  master  rather  than 
leave  his  wife  and  children,  was  not  made  nominally  free, 
and  apprenticed  or  hired  ?  Why  was  his  ear  bored,  and 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  243 

perpetual  relations  secured  between  him  and  his  mas 
ter  ?  " 

"  For  the  master's  security,  I  presume,"  said  Mr. 
North. 

"  I  should  say,"  said  I,  "  for  the  mutual  benefit  of  both. 
The  master  then  became  responsible  for  him  ;  his  sup 
port  was  a  lien  on  his  estate,  the  children  must  always 
be  responsible  for  his  maintenance.  The  awl  made  its 
record  in  the  master's  door-post,  as  well  as  in  the  ser 
vant's  ear. 

"  Now,  suppose,"  said  I,  "  that  God  chooses  to  supply 
this  nation  with  menial  servants  to  the  end  of  time. 
Suppose  that  lie  has  designed  that  one  race,  the  African, 
shall  be  the  source  from  which  he  will  draw  this  supply, 
and  that  down  through  long  generations  he  proposes  to 
make  this  black  race  our  servants,  seeking  at  the  same 
time,  by  means  of  this,  their  elevation,  by  connecting  them 
with  us,  and  keeping  up  the  relation  ;  and  that  for  the 
permanence  of  the  relation,  and  for  the  security  of  all 
concerned,  there  should  be  'ownership,'  such  as  he  him 
self  ordained  when  he  prescribed  the  boring  of  the  ear  ? 
For  my  part,  I  cannot  see  in  this  '  the  sum  of  all  villa- 
nies,'  *  an  enormous  wrong,'  '  a  stupendous  injustice.' 
Yet  this  would  be  slavery.  I  am  not  arguing  for  such 
a  constitution  of  things.  As  was  before  observed,  the 
whole  black  race  may,  in  a  few  years,  be  swept  off  from 
the  country ;  but  who  will  undertake  to  say  that,  as  the 
people  of  other  nations  have  been  employed  by  Provi 
dence  to  make  our  railroads  and  canals,  the  black  race 
may  not  be  employed  for  a  much  longer  term  to  be  our 
servants,  both  North  and  South,  both  East  and  West  ? 
And  who  will  say  that  the  tenure  of  '  ownership '  may 
not  be  the  wisest  and  most  benevolent  arrangement  for 


244  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

all  concerned  ?  I  repeat  it,  I  am  not  arguing  for  this ; 
I  am  only  trying  to  show  you  that  the  present  abuses 
in  slavery  are  no  valid  argument  against  the  relation 
itself;  that  this  may  remain  when  the  abuses  cease,  and 
therefore  that  at  the  present  time  we  ought  to  discrimi 
nate  in  our  arguments  against  slavery,  and  direct  our 
assaults,  if  we  continue  to  be  assailers,  against  its  abuses." 

"  On  one  disagreeable  subject,"  I  said  to  him  aside, 
"  I  will  make  this  general  remark :  The  Southern  slaves 
are,  as  a  whole,  a  religious  people ;  their  religion,  indeed, 
is  of  a  type  corresponding  to  their  condition.  But  still,  if 
the  South  were  one  festering  pool  of  iniquity,  as  many  at 
the  North  fancy,  would  the  colored  people  show  such  evi 
dences  as  they  do  of  moral  and  spiritual  improvement? 
Look  at  Hayti.  A  very  large  majority  of  the  children 
are  not  born  in  wedlock.  Slavery  is  a  moral  restraint 
upon  the  Southern  colored  people.  Evil  as  slavery  is,  it 
is,  in  many  things,  taking  the  slaves  as  they  are,  a  com 
parative  blessing." 

"  But,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  our  people  generally  insist 
that  abuses,  oppression,  cruelty,  are  so  inherent  in  sla 
very  that  they  cannot  be  removed  without  destroying  the 
relation  itself." 

"  Here,"  said  I,  "  is  the  mistake  under  which  South 
erners  perceive  that  we  labor,  and  which  prevents  us 
from  having  the  least  influence  with  them. 

"  This,  however,  is  unquestionably  true :  as  human  na 
ture  is,  we  would  not  choose  to  give  men  unlimited  power 
over  their  fellow-men  who  are  slaves.  If,  in  the  course 
of  events,  it  is  found  by  good  men  that  the  abuses  flowing 
from  such  power  are  inevitable,  that  legislative  enact 
ments  and  public  opinion  cannot  control  the  relation, 
their  consciences  will  not  be  quiet  till  it  is  abolished. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  245 

I  am  willing  to  confide  this  to  men  as  good  as  \ve,  acting 
as  they  will  on  their  responsibility  to  God.  It  may  be, 
that  the  system,  stripped  of  everything  which  can  be 
taken  away,  will  be  perpetuated,  for  the  best  good  of  the 
slave  and  his  master. 

"  But,"  said  I,  "  while  this  perpetual  relation  of  the 
black  race  to  us  is  possible,  and  may  be  the  design  of  a 
benevolent  God  for  our  happiness  and  that  of  the  Afri 
cans,  and  while  I  love  to  use  it  in  replying  to  those  who, 
with  short-sighted  and  somewhat  passionate  reasoning,  as 
I  think,  contend  that  slavery  must  utterly  be  rooted  out 
of  the  land,  I  confess  that  my  own  thoughts  turn  to  the 
Continent  of  Africa  as  the  great  object  for  which  an  all- 
wise  God  has  permitted  slavery  to  exist  on  our  shores. 

"  I  love  to  look  at  American  slavery  in  connection  with 
the  future  history  of  that  great  African  continent,  con 
taining  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  people.  History 
and  discovered  relics  make  the  Ethiopian  race  to  be  older 
even  than  Egypt.  The  once  powerful  nations  of  North 
ern  Africa,  Numidia,  Mauratania,  as  well  as  the  Egyp 
tian  builders  of  pyramids,  have  disappeared,  or  they  exist 
only  in  a  few  Coptic  tribes ;  and  even  they  are  of  doubt 
ful  origin.  But  the  Ethiopian  people,  notwithstanding 
the  slave-trade  which  has  extended  its  degrading  influence 
far  and  wide  among  them,  and  though  civilization  long 
since  departed  from  their  tribes,  have  continued  to  in 
crease  till  now  they  are  the  most  numerous  of  the  human 
families  except  the  Chinese.  The  slave-holding  nations 
which  have  pillaged  them  for  ages,  have  not  been  able  to 
destroy  them.  Ethiopia  may  well  say,  stretching  out 
her  hands  to  God,  '  Thy  wrath  lieth  hard  upon  me,  and 
thou  hast  afflicted  me  with  all  thy  waves.'  It  is  sublime 
to  think  what  triumphs  of  redemption  there  are  yet  to  be 


246  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

on  that  African  continent.  But  how  little,  apparently, 
from  all  that  they  ever  say,  do  some  of  our  abolitionist 
friends  seem  to  think  about  Africa  as  a  future  jewel  in 
Immanuel's  diadem !  Utterly  foreign  from  all  their 
thoughts  appears  to  be  the  great  plan  of  Providence 
which  by  means  even  of  slavery  in  this  land,  has  done 
so  much  to  extend  the  work  of  human  salvation  among 
the  African  race.  And  there  are  some  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  and  professed  Christians,  I  regret  to  observe,  who 
reply  to  •  all  that  you  say  about  the  vast  proportion,  to 
white  converts,  of  converts  among  the  colored  people,  in 
a  manner  which  would  awaken  great  fears  in  the  most 
charitable  breast  with  regard  to  their  own  personal  in 
terest  in  the  salvation  by  Christ,  did  we  not  all  know 
how  far  we  may  be  blinded  by  passion.  If  you  visit  in 
the  South,  you  will  find  that  African  missions  take  the 
deepest  hold  on  the  hearts  of  Southern  Christians.  The 
time  will  come,  God  hasten  it !  when  they  and  we  will  be 
united  in  plans  and  efforts  for  the  good  of  the  African 
race. 

"  But  I  am  not  in  favor  of  stealing  Africans  from  their 
native  land  to  bring  them  here,  even  though  it  were  cer 
tain  that  the  majority  of  them  would  be  converted  to  God. 
We  are  not  to  do  evil  that  good  may  come.  If  Provi 
dence  makes  it  plain  that  tribes  of  them  shall  be  removed 
to  new  districts  of  our  country,  suitable  measures  can  and 
will  be  devised  for  that  purpose.  That  they  are  better 
off  here,  even  in  slavery,  than  in  their  own  land,  under 
present  circumstances,  I  do  not  see  how  any  one  can 
question  ;  but  that  does  not  justify  man-stealing.  I  re 
member  to  have  seen  a  letter  from  a  Missionary  in  Af 
rica,  in  which  he  says,  speaking  of  the  slaves  and  of  the 
South,  'Would  that  all  Africa  were  there;  would  that 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  247 

tribes  of  this  unhappy  people  could  be  transferred  to  the 
privileges  which  the  slaves  at  the  South  enjoy.  I  would 
rather  take  my  chance  of  a  good  or  bad  master,  and  be  a 
slave  at  the  South,  than  be  as  one  of  those  heathen 
people.  In  saying  this,  I  refer  both  to  this  world  and  the 
next.'  I  need  not  say,  he  is  an  enemy  to  the  slave- 
trade. 

"  A  missionary  who  had  spent  much  time  among  the 
Zulu  people,  was  appealed  to  by  a  zealous  anti-slavery 
person  to  commiserate  our  slaves  as  being  so  much  worse 
off  than  the  Zulus.  '  Madam,'  said  he,  '  if  our  Zulus 
were  in  the  condition  of  your  slaves,  eternity  would  not 
be  long  enough  to  give  thanks/ 

"  Mrs.  North,"  said  I,  "  you  will  not  impute  it  to  mere 
gallantry  when  I  appeal  to  you  if  we  may  not  generally 
measure  the  refinement  and  elevation  of  society  by  the 
position  of  woman,  and  by  the  sentiments  and  manners 
of  the  other  sex  with  regard  to  yours.  The  deference, 
the  delicate  attentions,  the  gentleness,  the  refinement  of 
behavior,  in  word  and  act,  which  you  inspire,  are  both 
the  means  and  the  evidence  of  the  highest  cultivation. 
In  public  and  in  private  life,  in  assemblies,  public  con 
veyances,  at  table,  around  the  evening  lamp,  in  all  the 
intercourse  of  the  family,  the  susceptibility  of  impression, 
the  restraints  and  the  chastised  utterances,  in  word  and 
action,  of  husbands,  fathers,  brothers  and  friends,  which 
are  due  to  the  presence  of  woman,  are  a  correct  gauge 
of  civilization  and  refinement." 

"  All  right,"  said  Mr.  North,  bowing  very  politely  to 
his  wife. 

"  Nowhere,"  said  I,  "  do  we  see  this  more  conspicuously 
than  in  Southern  society.  Chivalry  there  seems  to  blend 
with  the  genial  influences  of  Christianity,  and  together 


248  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

they  give  a  tone  and  manner  to  Southern  life  which  is 
peculiar. 

"  I  am  often  struck  with  a  Southern  gentleman's  rev 
erence,  here  at  the  North,  for  the  female  sex.  He  is  dis 
pleased  at  seeing  daughters  serving  at  table  in  boarding- 
houses  kept  by  their  worthy  parents  or  widowed  mothers. 
We,  indeed,  respect  a  young  woman  who  serves  us  in 
this  manner,  (if  we  reflect  at  all,)  and  we  resent  rude 
ness  or  an  unfeeling  mode  of  addressing  those  who  are 
in  such  situations.  But  the  Southern  gentleman  goes 
further.  He  has,  perhaps,  not  been  accustomed  to  see 
the  daughter  of  a  white  family  serve.  When  a  respect 
able  young  W7oman,  therefore,  at  a  boarding-house,  brings 
him  his  tea,  he  feels  impelled  to  rise  and  ask  her  to  be 
seated,  and  to  wait  upon  her.  I  have  been  an  eye-wit 
ness  to  scenes  of  this  kind,  and  -have  been  much  pleased 
and  not  a  little  amused  at  some  exhibitions  of  the  feel 
ing.  If  our  sentiments  toward  the  sex,  and  their  posi 
tion  in  social  life,  mark  the  degree  of  civilization  and  cul 
tivation  in  a  community,  I  am  compelled  to  accord  a  high 
degree  of  it  to  Southern  society,  in  its  best  estate. 

"  This  is  one  effect  of  slavery.  It  takes  mothers,  wives, 
daughters,  away  from  occupations  which,  though  honor 
able,  do  not  always  elevate  them  in  the  eyes  of  the  other 
sex.  Perhaps  there  is  no  value  (and  some  will  say  it) 
in  all  this  ;  that  every  labor  and  service  is  right  and  good 
for  woman ;  and  that  we  are  to  prefer  a  state  of  society 
where  woman  does  these  things  with  her  own  hands,  in 
stead  of  having  them  done  for  her,  and  that  this  is  our 
only  safeguard  against  luxury  and  degeneracy.  I  will 
not  debate  it.  I  am  only  showing  that,  tried  by  an  ordi 
nary  test,  —  the  position  of  woman,  —  Southerners  are 
really  net  barbarians." 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  249 

"  I  verily  believe,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  that  if  you  take 
the  Southern  constitution  and  give  it  a  Northern  training, 
the  result  is  as  perfect  a  specimen  of  man  or  woman  as  is 
to  be  found  on  earth." 

"People  at  the  North,"  said  I,  "may,  in  their  zeal 
against  slavery,  make  light  of  the  abounding  sustenance 
which  the  slaves  enjoy,  and  call  it  a  low  and  gross  thing 
in  comparison  with  *  freedom  ; '  but,  in  the  view  of  all 
political  economists  and  publicists,  how  to  feed  the  lower 
classes  is  a  great  problem.  It  is  solved  in  slavery. 

"  There  is  another  topic,"  I  added,  "  which  is  interest 
ing  and  important. 

"  Here,"  said  I,  taking  a  newspaper-slip  from  my 
wallet,  "  is  something  which  fairly  made  me  weep.  It 
is  a  picture  of  one  of  our  poor,  virtuous,  honest  New 
England  homes,  in  which  I  would  rather  dwell  and  suf 
fer,  than  be  an  *  oppressor '  with  my  hundreds  of  slaves, 
and  wealth  counted  by  hundreds  of  thousands.  A  slave 
holder,  blessed  be  God,  is  not  a  synonyme  of  '  oppressor  ; ' 
nor  are  the  slaves  as  a  matter  of  course  '  oppressed.' 
Our  people  to  a  great  extent  think  otherwise,  and  it  is 
useful  to  see  how  we  appear  to  others  when  this  error 
leads  us  into  folly.  This  little  picture  in  the  newspaper- 
slip  gives  us  a  transient  look  into  an  abode  whose  honest 
poverty  and  want  are  made  more  painful  by  evil-doing 
under  the  influence  of  fanaticism." 

I  then  read  to  my  friends  the  following  from  a  Southern 
paper ;  —  I  here  omit  the  names  which  are  given  in  full :  — 

"  The  touching  letter  which  was  found  on  the  body  of 

,  one  of  the  insurgents,  from  his  sister  in , 

,  has  been  published.  The  following  paragraph  in 

that  letter  is  a  suggestive  one  : 

"  '  Would  you  come  home  if  you  had  the  money  to 
11* 


250  THE  SABLE  CLOUD 

come  with  ?  Tell  me  what  it  would  cost.  Oh !  I  would 
be  unspeakably  happy  if  it  were  in  my  power  to  send 
you  money,  but  we  have  been  very  poor  this  winter.  I 
have  not  earned  a  half-dollar  this  winter.  Mattie  has 
had  a  very  good  place,  where  she  has  had  severity-five 
cents  a  week  ;  she  has  not  spent  any  of  it  in  the  family, 
only  a  very  little  for  mother.  Father  has  had  very  small 
pay,  but  I  think  he  has  more  now ;  he  is  a  watchman  on 

the ,  that  runs  from  here  to .' 

"  Here,  says  the  Southern  editor,  is  a  family,  one  of 
thousands  of  families  in  New  England  in  similar  circum 
stances,  where  one  daughter  thinks  it  a  '  very  good  place  * 
where  she  can  get  seventy-five  cents  a  week  ;  another 
has  not  earned  a  half-dollar  during  the  winter,  and  all  are 
1  very  poor ; '  yet  the  son  and  brother  goes  off  and  deserts 
a  mother  and  sisters  thus  situated,  —  a  mother  and  sisters 
who,  though  poor,  have  evidently  the  most  affectionate 
feelings  and  tender  sensibilities,  —  for  the  purpose  of  lib 
erating  a  class  of  people,  not  one  of  whom  knows  any 
thing  of  the  want  or  privation  from  which  his  own  family 
is  suffering,  or  who  would  not  look  without  contempt  upon 
such  remuneration  as  seemed  the  height  of  good  fortune 
to  the  destitute  sisters  and  mother  of  this  abolitionist. 
When  we  bear  in  mind  the  intelligence  and  sensibilities 
which  characterize  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  poorest 
classes  equally  with  the  richest  in  New  England,  it  is 
most  amazing  that  men  should  overlook  such  misery  at 
their  own  doors  —  nay,  should  forsake  their  own  kitli 
and  kin  who  are  suffering  under  it  —  the  mother  who 
bore  them,  the  sisters  who  love  them  with  all  a  sister's 
tender  and  solicitous  love,  and  run  off  to  emancipate  the 
fattest,  sleekest,  most  contented  and  unambitious  race 
under  heaven." 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  251 

"  This  shows,"  said  I,  "  how  God  has  set  one  thing 
over  against  another,  in  this  world.  You  and  Mrs.  North 
and  myself  would  rather  be  the  poor  honest  '  watchman/ 
or  earn  our  '  seventy-five  cents  a  week,'  with  '  Mattie,' 
or  even,  with  the  loving  sister  who  writes  this  letter,  '  not* 
have  '  earned  a  halt-dollar  this  winter,'  than  be  the  '•  sleek 
est  '  of  well-fed  slaves. 

"  Yet,  when  we  are  summing  up  the  evils  of  slavery 
in  the  form  of  indictments,  we  must  honestly  confess  that 
it  is  no  small  thing  to  feed  a  whole  laboring  class  in  one 
half  of  a  great  country  with  bread  enough  and  to  spare." 

Mrs.  North  asked  if  I  had  ever  seen  a  slave-mart,  or 
if  I  knew  much  by  observation  of  the  domestic  slave- 
trade. 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  "  and  it  is  in  connection  with  this  feature 
of  slavery  that  we  at  the  North  are  most  easily  and  most 
painfully  affected.  Some  of  the  most  agonizing  scenes 
are  enacted  at  these  auctions.  They  are  a  part  of  sla 
very  ;  so  is  the  domestic  slave-trade,  which  is  the  neces 
sary  removal  of  the  slaves  from  places  where  they  cannot 
have  employment,  to  regions  where  their  labor  is  in  de 
mand.  In  no  other  way  can  they  be  disposed  of,  unless 
they  are  at  once  freed;  and  with  many  the  evils  of  the 
domestic  slave-trade  are  the  most  powerful  argument  in 
favor  of  emancipation.  That  there  are  grievous  trials 
and  sorrows,  as  well  as  wrongs  and  violence,  in  the  dis 
posal  of  slaves,  is  known  to  all.  As  to  those  who  are  to 
remain  within  the  State,  we  are  told  to  go,  if  we  will,  and 
inquire  into  the  history  of  slaves  who  are  to'  be  publicly 
sold,  and  take  the  number  of  cases  in  which  a  wanton  dis 
regard  of  a  slave's  feelings  can  be  detected.  An  owner  is 
compelled  to  part  with  his  property  in  his  slave ;  or,  the 
slave  is  taken  for  debt ;  estates  are  to  be  divided  ;  an 


252  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

owner  dies  intestate;  titles  are  to  be  settled,  mortgages 
foreclosed,  the  number  of  the  household  is  to  be  reduced  ; 
and  for  these  and  numerous  other  reasons  new  owners 
are  to  be  sought  for  the  slaves.  Here  is  a  man  and  his 
wife  and  children  to  be  sold.  There  is  a  general  interest 
felt  in  arranging  the  sale  so  that  the  family  may  be  in 
the  same  neighborhood.  This  is  for  the  interest  of  the 
owners ;  it  promotes  contentment  and  cheerfulness  in  the 
servants.  Cases  of  hardship  are  the  exceptions  to  the 
general  rule  in  disposing  of  servants.  Admitting  all  that 
can  properly  be  said  of  such  cases,  and  of  the  various 
other  evils  connected  with  it,  the  question  recurs,  What 
is  to  be  done  but  increasingly  to  mitigate  the  sorrows  of 
the  bondmen,  to  cultivate  a  kind  and  generous  disposition 
toward  them,  and  to  prepare  them,  as  far  and  as  fast  as 
the  good  of  all  concerned  will  warrant,  for  any  other  con 
dition  which  Providence  may  in  time  point  out  ?  My 
belief  is,  that  if  you  take  four  millions  of  laboring  people 
anywhere  under  the  sun,  and  put  down  in  separate  col 
umns  the  good  and  the  evil  in  their  conditions,  the  bal 
ance  of  welfare  and  happiness,  from  the  supply  of  their 
wants,  will  be  found  to  be  greater  among  our  Southern 
slaves  than  elsewhere.  But,  still,  this  leaves  them  slaves. 
My  reply  to  myself,  when  I  say  this,  is,  They  were  so  in 
their  own  land  ;  gr,  they  were  in  a  condition  of  fearful 
degradation  and  misery.  Their  God  is  their  judge ;  we 
have  not  increased  their  degradation ;  woe  to  us  if  we 
add  needless  sorrows  to  their  lot.  But  as  for  thrusting 
them  up  to  an  ideal  state  of  elevation,  before  their  time  and 
ours  has  come,  I  am  not  disposed  to  aid  in  it.  Moreover, 
Southern  Christians  are  doing  all  that  we  would  do  if  in 
their  place  ;  I  will  not  affect  to  be  more  humane  or  just 
than  they ;  this  is  our  great  error. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  253 

"  Here,"  said  I,  "  is  another  view  of  the  subject  "  : 

"  In  the  sale  of  slaves  (in  America)  nothing  hut  labor  is 
transferred.  It  passes  from  master  to  master,  as  it  passes,  in 
countries  of  hired  labor,  from  employer  to  employer.  The 
mode  in  which  the  transfer  is  made  differs  in  the  two  systems 
of  labor.  The  slave-laborer  is  never  compelled  to  hunt  for 
work  and  starve  till  he  finds  it.  Is  this  an  evil  to  the  laborer  ? 
Would  it  be  thought  an  evil,  by  the  hired  man  in  Europe,  that 
his  employer  should  be  obliged,  by  law,  to  find  him  another 
employer  before  dismissing  him  from  service  ? 

"  But,  it  is  said,  the  slave  is  too  much  exposed  to  the  mas 
ter's  abuse  of,  power  ;  he  is  liable  to  wrongs  without  a  rem 
edy  ;  and,  so  far,  his  condition  is  below  that  of  the  hired  la 
borer. 

"  If  this  be  true  at  all,  it  is  true  as  regards  the  able-bodied 
hired  man  only.  But  take  into  the  account  children  and 
women,  those,  for  example,  that  work  naked  in  coal-mines,  or 
wives  whose  sufferings  from  the  brutal  treatment  of  husbands 
daily  fill  the  reports  of  police  courts  ;  take  these  into  the  reck 
oning,  and  the  difference  in  the  consequences  of  abused  power 
will  be  very  small.  The  negro-slave  is  as  thoroughly  protected 
as  any  laborer  in  Europe.  He  is  protected  from  every  other 
man's  wrong-doing  by  the  ready  interference  of  his  master ;  he 
is  guarded  from  the  master's  abuse  by  the  laws  of  the  land, 
and  a  vigilant,  earnest  public  opinion.  Let  all  cruelty  be 
punished  ;  let  all  abuse  of  power  be  restrained  ;  but  to 
abolish  the  relation  of  master  and  slave,  because  there  are 
bad  masters  and  ill-treated  slaves,  would  not  be  a  whit  wiser 
than  to  abolish  marriage,  because  there  are  brutal  husbands 
and  murdered  wives. 

"  Yet,  surely,  it  will  be  said,  it  must  be  admitted,  after  all, 
that  slavery  is  an  evil.  Yes,  certainly,  it  is  an  evil ;  but  in 
the  same  sense  only  in  which  servitude  or  hired  labor  is  an 
evil.  To  gain  one's  bread  by  the  sweat  of  one's  brow,  is  a 
curse.  But  it  is  a  curse  attended  with  a  blessing.  It  is  an 
evil  that  shuts  out  a  greater  evil.  Labor  for  wages,  labor  for 


254  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

subsistence,  and  subjection  to  the  authority  of  employer  or 
master,  are  the  conditions  on  which  alone  the  laboring  masses, 
•white  or  black,  can  live  with  advantage  to  themselves  and  to 
society."  — De  Bow's  Review,  Jan.  1860,  pp.  56,  57. 

Mr.  North  asked  if  I  did  not  think  that  the  colored 
people  should  be  assisted  in  their  efforts  to  get  an  education. 

"  There  are  collegiate  institutions,"  I  told  him,  "  for 
colored  people,  in  Oxford,  Pa.,  and  in  Xenia,  0.  With 
great  sorrow  have  I  observed,  that  applications  to  aid 
these  institutions  and  to  endow  others  for  similar  pur 
poses  have  been  received  with  coldness  and  distrust  by 
many  who  could  have  made  liberal  contributions,  for  no 
other  reason  than  the  suspicion  that  they  were  designed 
by  Abolitionists  to  thrust  forward  the  colored  man  in  an 
offensive  manner.  I  have  known  the  name  of  a  leading 
Abolitionist  to  be  the  death  of  a  subscription-paper  for 
such  an  institution.  This  was  a  bitter  prejudice.  When 
philanthropy  with  regard  to  the  colored  race  among  us 
falls  into  its  natural  channel,  we  shall  see  the  South  and 
the  North  opening  wide  the  doors  of  usefulness  in  every 
department  for  which  the  colored  people  shall,  any  of 
them,  manifest  an  aptitude.  The  idea  that  this  race  is 
to  be  debarred  from  any  and  every  development  of  which 
it  is  capable,  is  not  entertained  by  any  respectable  people 
at  the  South.  The  negro  at  the  South  is  not  doomed,  by 
the  Christian  people,  to  an  inexorable  fate.  They  will 
help  him  rise  as  .fast  and  as  far  as  God,  in  his  providence, 
shows  .it  to  be  his  will  to  employ  any  or  all  of  that  race 
in  other  ways^  than  those  of  servitude. 

"  '  If  American  slavery/  says  one,  '  be  the  horrid  sys 
tem  of  cruelty,  ignorance,  and  wickedness  represented  by 
some  writers  of  fiction  and  paid  defamers  of  our  institu 
tions,  how  happens  it  that  those  who  have  been  reared 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  255 

in  the  midst  of  it,  when  freed  and  planted  in  Africa  at 
once  exhibit  such  capacity  for  self-government  and  self- 
education,  and  set  such  examples  of  good  morals  ? 

" '  Have  the  negroes  under  British  care  at  Sierra 
Leone  made  similar  progress  in  improvement  ?  Do 
the  free  colored  subjects  of  Britain  in  the  West  Indies 
show  the  capacity,  industry,  and  intelligence  manifested 
by  the  Liberians,  whose  training  was  in  the  school  of 
American  servitude  ?  Nor  have  the  best  specimens 
of  this  tutelage  been  sent  out.  Thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  colored  servants  in  the  Southern  States 
are  church-members,  instructed  in  their  duties  by  faithful 
Christian  teachers,  and  the  children  are  trained  in  the 
fear  and  love  of  God.'  —  I  then  observed, 

"  I  have  come  to  this  conclusion  :  if  Southern  Chris 
tians  say  to  us,  as  they  do,  Auction-blocks,  separation  of 
families,  and  similar  features  of  slavery,  in  the  limited 
and  decreasing  extent  to  which  they  prevail,  are  as 
odious  to  us  as  to  you  ;  —  we  tolerate  these  things  as  parts 
of  a  system  which  we  all  feel  to  be  an  evil,  and  which 
we  are  constantly  striving  to  ameliorate ;  —  I  will  leave 
the  whole  subject  in  their  hands  ;  I  will  trust  them  in 
this  as  I  would  in  anything  and  everything  ;  I  feel  ab 
solved  from  all  responsibility  to  God  or  to  them  witli 
regard  to  the  matter." 

"  Pray  tell  me,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  what  is  all  this  dis 
cussion  about  *  the  territories,'  and  keeping  slavery  out  of 
them  ?  " 

"  I  told  her  that  slavery,  which  fifteen  States  of  the 
Union  maintain  as  a  part  of  their  domestic  life,  is,  by 
many  of  the  people  in  the  Free  States,  regarded  as  they 
regard  the  plague  and  death  ;  they  prescribe  certain  de 
grees  of  latitude  as  barriers  to  it,  as  though  they  enacted 


256  THE  SABLE  CLOUD* 

thus:  'North  of  36°  30'  whooping-cough  is  prohibited, 
measles  are  forbidden,  cholera-morbus  is  forever  inter 
dicted.'  They  regard  slave-holders  as  living  in  a  moral 
pestilence,  and  seeking  to  carry  it  with  them  into  new 
districts. 

"  But,  practically,"  I  said,  "  the  thing  will  now  regu 
late  itself,  and  both  sides  are  contending  very  much  for 
an  abstract  right.  It  is  a  war  of  feeling,  and  no  one 
knows  where  it  will  end.  If  the  North  would  say,  '  Free 
labor,  which  cannot  thrive  where  slavery  exists,  requires 
an  amicable  division  and  allotment  of  the  territorial 
regions ;  let  us  agree  where  our  respective  systems  shall 
prevail/  —  there  would  be  no  difficulty.  But  the  effort 
has  been  to  shut  out  slavery,  as  men  use  sanitary  legis 
lation  and  quarantine  to  keep  out  a  pestilence.  This 
is  treating  fifteen  States  of  the  Union  as  polluted  and 
polluting.  Hence  they  say,  We  cannot  live  together  as 
one  people,  and  we  will  not." 

"  What  do  you  honestly  think,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  is 
the  true  cause  of  our  present  national  calamities  ? " 

"  They  are  owing,"  said  I,  "  originally,  to  the  peculiar 
state  of  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  North  toward  the 
South.  This  was  not  in  consequence  of  injury  experi 
enced  ;  for  slavery  had  not  inflicted  injury  upon  the 
North ;  but,  right  or  wrong,  Northern  disapprobation 
of  slavery,  and  the  ways  of  manifesting  it,  are  the  foun 
tain-head  of  our  present  national  trouble.  Let  great 
numbers  in  one  section  of  such  a  nation  as  this  con 
scientiously  disapprove  of  their  brethren  in  another 
section,  and  not  only  so,  but  hold  them  guilty  of  an 
immoral  and  an  inhuman  system,  and  deal  with  them 
in  such  ways  as  Conscience,  that  most  merciless  of 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  257 

inquisitors  and  persecutors,  alone  employs,  and  if  the 
indicted  section  be  not  exasperated,  it  will  be  be 
cause  the  accusation  is  true,  —  that  their  system  has 
destroyed  their  manhood." 

"  But  my  hope  and  belief,"  said  he,  "  are,  that  all 
these  changes  are  to  result  in  the  overthrow  of  slavery." 

"  I  can  only  say,"  said  I,  in  answer  to  such  a  re 
mark,  "  that  he  who  expects  relief  from  our  trouble 
through  the  eradication  of  slavery,  and  urges  on  seces 
sion  and  division  as  the  means  to  effect  it,  is  in  danger 
of  having'  his  enthusiasm  counted  as  fanaticism,  if  not 
madness." 

"  How  I  wish,"  said  he,  "  that  we  could  join  and  buy 
up  these  slaves  and  set  them  free." 

"  Kind  and  well  meant  as  this  proposal  is,"  said  I, 
"  nothing  is  really  more  offensive  to  the  South.  It  im 
plies  that  her  conscience  is  debauched  by  self-interest, 
and  that  by  offering  to  remunerate  her  if  she  will  part 
with  what  we  call  her  ill-gotten  booty  we  shall  assist 
her  to  become  virtuous.  Such  a  proposal  makes  her 
feel  that  fanaticism  has  assumed  the  calmness  which  is 
its  most  hopeless  symptom." 

"  Then,"  said  he,  "  is  the  North  to  change  all  its 
opinions  ?  " 

I  said,  "  If  this  implies  the  abandonment  of  moral  or 
religious  principle  in  the  least  degree,  Never.  Our 
only  hope  lies  in  our  possibly  being  in  the  wrong,  and 
ii  magnanimously  changing  our  views  and  feelings,  and 
our  behavior.  This,  upon  conviction,  it  will  be  most 
noble  to  do  for  its  own  sake,  leaving  the  effect  of  it  to 
Him  by  whom  actions  are  weighed,  and  to  those  who, 
we  shall  have  concluded,  are  naturally  as  magnanimous 
and  just  as  we,  and  who,  if  guilty  of  oppression,  were 


258  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

liable  to  the  very  same  accusation  when  we  first  con 
federated  with  them,  and  when  Northern  slave-import 
ers  put  their  hands  with  Southern  slave-holders  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  both  averring  that  all 
men  are  created  free  and  equal. 

"  We  seem  now  to  have  concluded  that  we  have 
put  ourselves  entirely  right,  and  that  our  Southern 
brethren  are  entirely  wrong." 

"  I  cannot  feel,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  that  we  are  to 
blame  for  having  our  opinions,  and  for  expressing  them 
honestly  and  fearlessly.  What  more  have  We  done?" 

I  replied,  "  They  say  that"  we  have  held  them  up  to 
universal  execration ;  that  we  have  quoted,  with  readi 
ness,  the  testimony  of  foreign  nations  against  them,  — 
of  nations  who  know  nothing  of  domestic  slavery  like 
ours,  mixed  up  with  the  qualifying  influences  of  our 
own  civilization  ;  that  our  imaginative  literature  has 
made  them  odious,  associating  cruelty  and  vulgarity 
with  the  relation  of  slave-holding ;  that  we  have  labored 
to  cripple  their  Institution,  hoping  to  destroy  it ;  that  we 
have  striven  to  save  the  District  of  Columbia  from  their 
system  as  from  corruption ;  that  a  thousand  millions  of 
dollars  of  their  property  we  have  treated  as  contra 
band,  and  have  made  it  perilous  for  them  to  recov 
er  it ;  that  we  have  lain  in  wait  and  molested  them 
in  their  transit  through  our  borders,  with  their  ser 
vants,  to  embark  for  sea.  We  dispute  their  right  to 
go  with  their  servants  into  territories  jointly  acquired, 
and  belonging  by  constitutional  right  equally  to  them 
as  to  ourselves.  This,  they  say,  has  not  been  a  just 
and  sincere  demand  for  an  equitable  division  of  terri 
tory  in  view  of  the  naturally  conflicting  interests  of 
slave  labor  and  free,  but  rather  a  vindictive  determina- 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  259 

tion  to  hem  in  the  slave-holder,  to  force  the  scorpion 
into  fires  where  he  shall  die  of  his  own  sting,  or, — 
to  borrow  the  metaphor,  with  the  language,  of  a  pres 
ent  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  —  where  the  *  poi 
soned  rat  shall  die  in  his  own  hole.' 

"  Two  confederacies  or  one,  our  prospect  is  fearful 
if  we  continue  to  feel  and  act  toward  each  other  after 
this  temper,  and  to  cherish  our  respective  grievances." 

"  There  is  another  side  to  all  this,"  said  Mr.  North. 
"  I  ascribe  the  excitement  at  the  South  to  the  loss  on 
their  part  of  political  power,  or  to  a  grasping  spirit 
which  breaks  compromises,  and  which  requires  that  the 
national  legislation  be  always  shaped  in  its  favor." 

"  But,"  said  I,  "  if  we  can  trust  the  convictions  of 
just  men,  in  private  life,  at  the  South,  —  men  removed 
from*  all  suspicion  as  to  the  purity  of  their  mo 
tives,  —  it  is  certain  that  our  Northern  feelings  toward 
slave-holders,  and  the  expressions  of  those  feelings  in 
ways  which  have  been  applauded  among  us  for  many 
years,  are  the  real  causes  of  the  irritation  and  exas 
peration  which  have  brought  us  to  the  present  brink. 

"  Now,  as  these  two  sections  must  continue  to  exist, 
side  by  side,  they  will  go  on  to  repel  each  other  until 
either  slavery  ceases,  or  a  change  of  feeling  takes 
place  in  the  non-slaveholding  section.  Secession  and 
permanent  division  will  not  cure  the  trouble,  but  will 
increase  it.  Moreover,  the  contrariety  of  feeling  be 
tween  people  in  the  non-slaveholding  States,  made 
intense  by  the  departure  of  the  Southern  section, 
may  inaugurate  hostilities  among  ourselves  more  fear 
ful  than  those  which  drive  away  the  Southern  people. 

"  Perhaps  we  are  to  be  two  nations.  I  cannot  but 
regard  this  as  the  greatest  calamity  which  will  have 


260  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

happened  to  the  cause  of  human  improvement.  Nor  do 
I  see  how  it  will  help  Northern  philanthropy,  nor  the 
negro  ;  but  it  may  be  greatly  for  his  injury.  The  truth 
is,  we  must  live  together  for  self-defence  against  each 
other,  if  from  no  other  consideration.  Israel  began  its 
downfall  in  secession,  which  was  compelled  by  Reho- 
boarn. 

"  But,"  said  I,  "  let  us  contemplate  a  different  issue. 
Let  us  think  what  a  result  it  will  be  if  such  a  govern 
ment  as  ours,  whose  speedy  ruin  has  been  so  often  pre 
dicted  and  is  still  confidently  looked  for,  shall  pass 
through  these  trials  and  dangers  without  bloodshed, 
and  we  become  again  a  united  people.  Self-gov 
ernment  will  then  have  vindicated  itself;  constitu 
tional  liberty  will  have  triumphed;  arms  and  coercion 
will  lose  their  old  authority  and  power ;  for  there  will 
be  an  example  of  a  republican  people  recovering 
from  convulsions  which  would  have  demolished  any 
throne  or  power  which  trusted  in  the  sword.  The 
serf-boats  in  ports  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  which  ride 
the  swift,  enormous  surges,  are  not  nailed,  but  their 
parts  are  lashed  one  to  another,  and  thus  the  boats 
yield  easily  to  the  force  of  the  water.  Our  govern 
ment  has  been  likened  to  them ;  and  now,  by  yield 
ing,  one  part  to  another,  where  a  theoretically  strong 
er  government  would  have  used  coercion,  we  shall, 
if  it  please  God,  pass  safely  through  these  fearful 
hazards,  furnishing  a  demonstration,  which  God  may 
have  been  preparing  by  us  for  the  instruction  of 
mankind,  that  fraternal  blood  is  not  the  best  nour 
ishment  of  the  tree  of  liberty,  and  that  '  wisdom/ 
resulting  in  the  victories  of  peace,  '  is  better  than 
weapons  of  war.' 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  261 

"  I  look,  therefore,  toward  some  change  in  Northern 
feelings  with  regard  to  the  South.  A  change  in  this 
respect  will  end  our  troubles.  Opinions  may  not  be 
wholly  reversed  ;  people  born  and  bred  under  totally 
different  institutions  may  not,  for  they  cannot  wholly, 
yield  their  convictions  on  controverted  sectional  topics, 
even  when  they  cherish  mutual  respect  and  deference; 
but,  the  belief  that  the  North  will  change  its  'feelings 
toward  the  South  and  its  institutions,  under  a  modifi 
cation  of  views  entirely  consistent  with  independence  of 
judgment  and  self-respect,  and  that  the  South  will  not 
be  wanting  in  a  corresponding  temper,  rests  on  the 
same  conviction  as  that  God  does  not  intend  to  de 
stroy  us  by  each  other's  hands,  nor  to  make  the 
life  of  the  two  sections  weary  with  perpetual  hatred 
and  strife." 

"  Our  form  of  government,  Mr.  North,"  said  I,  "  is  the 
very  best  on  earth  if  it  goes  well,  and  the  worst  if  it 
goes  ill.  We  have  no  standing  army  to  fight  for  an  ad 
ministration  as  for  a  throne  or  dynasty ;  so  that  if  a  State 
secedes,  the  question  is  how  to  coerce  that  people,  if  it  be 
best  to  attempt  it.  Citizens  do  not  like  to  march  against 
their  brethren.  Think  of  our  taking  up  arms  against  our 
correspondents  ;  against  people  that  have  gone  from  our 
churches  and  settled  in  that  State  ;  against  cousins,  and 
brothers-in-law,  and  people  who  lived  or  did  business  un 
der  the  same  roofs  with  us." 

"  It  is  awkward,  indeed,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  especially 
if  they  simply  withdraw  and  hold  the  fortifications  of  the 
general  government,  in  their  own  territory,  to  keep  the 
government  from  destroying  their  lives." 

"  Why,  yes,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  it  would  be  simple  in 


262  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

them,  after  seceding,  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  bombarded. 
But  have  they  any  right  to  secede?" 

"  As  to  that,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  my  mind  has  been  much 
exercised  of  late  with  this  thought :  I  have  always  advo 
cated  the  right  of  the  negroes  to  make  insurrection,  or  to 
flee  from  oppression.  But  now  their  masters  complain  of 
being  oppressed  by  the  North.  Why  have  not  the  mas 
ters  the*  same  right  to  secede  from  their  government  as  the 
negro  from  his  ?  " 

"  Well,  husband,"  said  his  wife,  "  I  think  that  you  are 
getting  on  fast." 

"  Why,"  said  I,  "  Mr.  North,  is  not  slavery  '  the  sum 
of  all  villanies?'  Did  the  negro  ever  consent  to  his  form 
of  government  ?  " 

"  Well,"  said  he,  "  I  never  consented  to  be  born  ;  I  find 
myself  in  existence  ;  I  have  no  more  consented-  to  the 
government  of  the  United  States  than  I  suppose  the 
negroes,  generally,  have  submitted  to  their  civil  condition. 
My  question  is,  Who  shall  decide  when  the  Southern 
masters  say,  We  are  intolerably  oppressed  ;  we  are  under 
a  yoke  ;  '  break  every  yoke  ! '  'let  the  oppressed  go  free  ! ' 
If  I  interpose  and  say,  *  You  are  not  oppressed ;  you  are 
better  off  as  you  now  are,'  is  not  this  the  reply  of  the 
masters  when  we  seek  to  free  their  slaves  ?  Do  we  not 
say  that  the  oppressed  must  be  the  judges  of  their  ne 
cessity  ?  And  why  may  I  coerce  the  master,  if  it  be 
wrong  for  him  to  coerce  the  negro  ?  " 

"  I  must  let  you  work  out  that  question  at  your  leisure, 
and  on  your  own  principles,"  said  I.  —  "  We  were  speak 
ing  of  seizing  and  holding  the  forts  and  arsenals.  The 
French  proverb  says,  '  It  is  the  first  step  that  costs.'  Se 
ceding  involves  the  necessity  of  seizing  the  forts.  If  they 
who  do  this  embarrass  other  persons  in  their  lawful  rights, 


n 

i 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  263 

they  must  risk  the  consequences  ;  but  if  they  secede  from 
the  government,  the  question  is,  Do  circumstances  justify 
a  revolution  ?  for  secession  is  revolution.  Is  revolution 
justifiable  in  the  present  case  ? 

"  But  not  to  discuss  that  question,"  said  I,  "  all  that  I 
wished  to  say  was  this,  that  our  government  seems  ad 
mirably  suited  for  a  people  who  will  behave  well  under 
it.  We  can  take  care  of  isolated  cases  of  rebellion.  But 
if  any  important  part  of  the  country  rises  up  and  departs, 
it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  know  what  to  do.  Preven 
tion  is  excellent ;  but  cure  is  next  to  impossible.  So  long 
as  there  is  a  general  acquiescence  in  the  exercise  of  ex 
ecutive  power  against  insurrectionists,  one  or  more,  we 
have  a  general  government ;  but  when  States  depart,  we 
are  a  house  divided  against  itself.  We  find  that  we  have 
been  living,  as  it  were,  not  so  much  under  paternal  au 
thority,  as  under  fraternal  rule.  If  broken  irretrievably, 
the  alternative  is  to  be  divided,  or  for  one  part  of  the 
country  to  coerce  its  neighbors  and  brethren.  This  we 
find  to  be  extremely  inconvenient  and  really  impractica 
ble  without  civil  war  ;  and  after  the  war,  —  whose  hor 
rors,  in  our  case,  can  never  be  pictured,  —  we  would 
either  find  ourselves  in  the  same  divided  state  as  before, 
r  if  politically  united,  it  will  have  been  effected  at  a  cost 
which  it  is  fearful  to  contemplate. 

"  So  that  we  are  illustrating  the  question,  whether 
such  a  government  as  ours  is  really  practicable, —  wheth 
er  a  people  can  govern  themselves.  Already  we  hear  it 
said,  'We  have  no  government.'  The  explanation  is, 
We  are  not  disposed  to  destroy  each  other's  lives  to  pre 
serve  the  confederation.  We  can  have  a  monarchy,  with 
its  '  divine  right,'  and  with  its  standing  army,  if  we 
choose ;  or,  if  we  remain  as  a  republic,  we  must  be  liable 


264  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

to  just  our  present  exigency.  Our  only  defence,  then, 
consists  in  mutual  conciliation  and  agreement. 

"  What  a  land  this  is,"  said  I,  "  with  its  diversified  in 
terests  and  its  unparalleled  variety  of  products,  —  its 
agriculture,  mechanic  arts,  science,  and  literature.  Sep 
aration  will  embarrass  every  form  of  intercourse,  and 
make  us  hostile." 

"  Jews  and  Samaritans,"  said  Mrs.  North.  "  And  all 
for  an  idea  ! " 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  "  and  for  an  idea  which  to  one  whole 
section,  and  to  a  very  large  part  of  the  people  in  the 
other  section,  is  false.  —  Four  millions  of  negroes  are 
destroying  us.  As  a  foreign  writer  said,  '  In  trying  to 
give  liberty  to  the  negro,  we  are  losing  our  own.'  " 

Said  Mrs.  North,  "  Can  nothing  be  done  to  save 
us?" 

"  Bishop  Butler  tells  us,  Mrs.  North,"  said  I,  "  that  a 
nation  may  be  insane  as  well  as  an  individual.  But 
reason  seems  to  be  returning  in  some  quarters.  Seces 
sion  and  its  consequences  are  having  a  wonderful  effect 
to  open  the  eyes  of  people.  John  Brown's  foray  and  its 
end  were  a  providential  demonstration  of  certain  errors, 
which  we  may  conclude  will  not  soon  be  revived.  Se 
cession  is  now  leading  the  world  to  look  more  narrowly 
into  the  subject  of  negro  slavery.  Let  me  read  to  you 
these  extracts  from  a  recent  number  of  '  Le  Pays,'  Paris. 
The  writer  is.  arguing  that  Europe  must  recognize  the 
Southern  confederacy : 

'  But  in  awaiting  these  results  which  would  flow  from  the 
cordial  welcome  given  by  Europe  to  the  new  confederation, 
let  true  philanthropists  be  assured  that  they  are  wonderfully 
mistaken  in  regard  to  the  real  condition  of  the  blacks  of  the 
South.  We  willingly  admit  that  their  error  is  pardonable,  for 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  265 

they  have  learned  the  relations  of  master  and  slave  only  from 
"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  Shall  we  look  for  that  condition  in 
the  lucubrations  of  that  romance,  raised  to  the  importance  of 
a  philosophic  dissertation,  but  leading  public  opinion  astray, 
provoking  revolution,  and  necessitating  incendiarism  and  rev 
olution  ?  A  romance  is  a  work  of  fancy,  which  one  cannot 
refute,  and  which  cannot  serve  as  a  basis  to  any  argument. 
In  our  discussion,  we  must  seek  elsewhere  for  authorities  and 
material.  Facts  are  eloquent,  and  statistics  teach  us  that, 
under  the  superintendence  of  those  masters,  —  so  cruel  and  so 
terrible,  if  we  are  to  believe  "  Uncle  Tom," —  the  black  popu 
lation  of  the  South  increases  regularly  in  a  greater  proportion 
than  the  white  ;  while  in  the  Antilles,  in  Africa,  and  especially 
in  the  so  very  philanthropic  States  of  the  North,  the  black  race 
decreases  in  a  deplorable  proportion. 

4  The  condition  of  those  blacks  is  assuredly  better  than  that 
of  the  agricultural  laborers  in  many  parts  of  Europe.  Their 
morality  is  far  superior  to  that  of  the  free  negroes  of  the 
North  ;  the  planters  encourage  marriage,  and  thus  endeavor  to 
develop  among  them  a  sense  of  the  family  relation,  with  a 
view  of  attaching  them  to  the  domestic  hearth,  consequently  to 
the  family  of  the  master.  It  will  be  then  observed  that  in 
such  a  state  of  things  the  interests  of  the  planter,  in  default 
of  any  other  motive,  promotes  the  advancement  and  well-being 
of  the  slave.  Certainly,  we  believe  it  possible  still  to  amelio 
rate  their  condition.  It  is  with  that  view,  even,  that  the  South 
has  labored  for  so  long  a  time  to  prepare  them  for  a  higher 
civilization. 

'  In  no  part,  perhaps,  of  the  continent,  regard  being  had  to 
the  population,  do  there  exist  men  more  eminent  and  gifted, 
with  nobler  or  more  generous  sentiments,  than  in  the  Southern 
States.  No  country  possesses  lovelier,  kinder  hearted,  and 
more  distinguished  women.  To  commence  with  the  immortal 
Washington,  the  list  of  statesmen  who  have  taken  part  in  the 
government  of  the  United  States  shows  that  all  those  who 
have  shed  a  lustre  on  the  country,  and  won  the  admiration  of 
Europe,  owed  their  being  to  that  much  abused  South. 
12 


266  THE   SABLE  CLOUD. 

'  Is  it  true  that  so  much  distinction,  talent,  and  grandeur  of 
soul  could  have  sprung  from  all  the  vices,  from  the  cruelty  and 
corruption  which  one  would  fain  attribute  now  to  the  Southern 
people  ?  The  laws  of  inflexible  logic  refute  these  false  impu 
tations.  And  —  strange  coincidence  —  while  Southern  men 
presided  over  the  destinies  of  the  Union,  its  gigantic  prosper 
ity  was  the  astonishment  of  the  world.  In  the  hands  of 
Northern  men,  that  edifice,  raised  with  so  much  care  and 
labor  by  their  predecessors,  comes  crashing  down,  threatening 
to  carry  with  it  in  its  fall  the  industrial  future  of  every  other 
nation.  For  long  years  the  constant  efforts  of  the  North,  and 
a  certain  foreign  country,  to  spread  among  the  blacks  incen 
diary  pamphlets  and  tracts  have  powerfully  contributed  to 
suspend  every  Southern  movement  towards  emancipation.  Its 
people  have  been  compelled  to  close  their  ears  to  ideas  which 
threatened  their  very  existence.' " 

"  But,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  here  we  have  been,  for  thirty- 
years  or  more,  living  on  an  anti-slavery  -excitement. 
Grant  that  it  is  all  wrong ;  will  you  ask  or  expect  that 
we  shall  change  all  at  once  ?  in  a  week  ?  or  in  a  month  ? 
or  in  a  year  ?  We  will  not  kneel  to  anybody  ;  if  we 
change,  it  must  be  upon  conviction." 

"  I  strike  hands  with  you  there,"  said  I,  "  most  heartily. 
Our  Southern  friends  must  understand  this ;  they  must 
now  approach  us  once  more  with  reason  and  persuasion. 
The  people  at  large  are  in  a  frame  to  be  reasoned  with 
and  persuaded  ;  for  if  we  can  do  anything  within  the 
bounds  of  reason  to  retain  the  South  in  the  Union,  it  will 
be  done.  We  will  say  of  concession  as  the  antithesis  of 
secession,  as  was  said  of  two  other  things  :  '  Millions  for 
defence,  but  not  a  cent  for  tribute.'  I  think  that  both 
sections  need  forgiveness  of  God,  and  of  each  other." 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  after  all  we  shall  get  along 
and  get  through,  even  if  there  should  be  a  separation." 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  267 

"  Mr.  North,"  said  I,  "  -when  you  were  studying  Cicoro, 
could  you  understand  —  for  I  could  not  —  how  he  and 
other  patriots  could  feel  so  strongly  about  the  fortunes 
of  their  country  as  to  declare  —  which  they  frequently 
do  —  that  they  would  rather  die  than  survive  their  coun 
try's  honor  ?  It  has  come  to  me  vividly  of  late.  I  see 
it  and  feel  it.  The  sunshine  will  seem  to  have  gone  out 
of  our  life  when  we  become  two  unfriendly  nations. 

"  It  is  easy,"  said  I,  "  for  it  gratifies  some  of  the  lower 
passions,  to  ridicule  a  whole  section  of  the  country  for 
their  act  of  secession  or  a  disposition  towards  it ;  to  boast 
that  the  South  cannot  do  without  us ;  to  prophesy  that 
they  will  get  sick  of  it,  and  wish  to  return ;  to  express 
wonder  that  they  should  feel  so  much  hurt ;  to  remind 
them  that,  if  they  will  do  as  we  have  always  counselled 
them,  there  would  be  no  trouble ;  and  there  is  a  tempta 
tion  to  say,  as  friends  in  a  quarrel  will  hastily  say,  Let 
them  go.  But  when  they  are  irrecoverably  gone,  justi 
fiably  or  not,  I  tell  you,  Mr.  North,  there  will  be  mourn 
ing  in  our  streets.  I  know,  indeed,  that  there  are  some 
among  us  to  whom  it  will  be  a  carnival ;  but  —  " 

"  They  will  have  a  long  Lent  after  it,"  said  Mrs. 
North ;  "  pray  excuse  me." 

"  Ties  of  kindred,"  said  I,  "  patriotism,  Christian  friend 
ships,  will  not  go  down  to  hopeless  graves  without  leaving 
behind  them  sorrows  ending  only  with  life. 

"  It  appears  to  me,"  said  I,  "  that  our  ship  is  where 
nothing  but  an  immediate  calm  and  then  a  change  of  the 
wind,  can  save  us.  If  we  become  two  nations,  it  may  be 
for  judgment  and  destruction ;  and  it  may  be  for  some 
great,  ultimate  good.  But  it  will  be  hard  parting.  To 
think  of  having  no  South  !  and  of  their  having  no  North  ! 
We  shall  each  become  provincial.  We  are  wonderfully 


2G8  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

fitted  to  qualify  and  improve  each  the  other.  How 
strange  it  would  be  to  have  these  two  sections  love  each 
other  !  No  one  among  us  under  twenty-five  years  of 
age,  has  probably  ever  thought  of  us  but  as  in  contro 
versy." 

"  Speaking  of  Southern  life,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  I  have 
not  seen  our  friend  Grant  since  he  came  back  from  the 
South." 

"  I  have  seen  him,"  said  I,  "  and  have  heard  his  story. 
He  made  his  home  with  an  old  friend,  a  clergyman.  It 
was  known  that  he  was  a  stranger,  and  at  once  he  was 
made  to  feel  at  home  by  many  of  the  citizens.  The  morn 
ing  after  he  arrived,  Jack,  a  servant  of  a  neighboring 
family,  came  into  the  break  fast- room,  with  a  waiter  filled 
with  dishes,  which  he  deposited  on  the  side-board.  '  Mas 
ter  and  Missis  send  their  compliments,  and  want  to  know 
how  the  family  is,  and  how  Mr.  Grant  is  this  morning.' 
Now  they  had  never  seen  Mr.  Grant;  but  they  knew 
that  he  had  arrived  the  night  before.  'Well,  Jack,' 

says  Mrs. ,  '  I  see  you  have  got  some  good  things  for 

us.'  '  0,  not  much,  Missis ;  but  they  thought  you  and 
Mr.  Grant  would  excuse  'em  for  sending  it.'  So  there 
were  deposited  on  the  breakfast-table,  '  big  hominy '  in 
one  or  two  shapes,  rare  fish,  puff-muffins,  and  several 
dishes  which  called  for  Jack's  interpretations.  'And  Mas 
ter  says,  shall  he  send  the  carriage  round  for  you  this 
forenoon  ?  and  he  will  call  himself.'  The  evening  talk 
was  interrupted  by  a  black  woman,  all  smiles,  bearing  a 
waiter  of  ice-cream  and  other  refreshments,  from  another 
house  ;  and  so  the  visit  was  a  succession  of  surprises  from 
families  who,  at  the  South,  count  each  other's  guests  their 
own.  Mr.  Grant  was  a  strong  anti-secessionist,  and  he 
spent  much  breath  in  arguing  with  the  people  in  private. 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  2G9 

On  his  return  to  his  room,  one  day,  he  found  a  glass  dish 
on  the  table,  filled  with  japonicas,  camellias,  roses,  and 
other  early  flowers,  with  the  card  of  a  married  lady,  —  with 
whom  he  had  had  a  debate,  —  inscribed,  *  From  the  hot 
test  of  the  Secessionists.'  He  seems  modified  in  his  views 
a  little  about  '  the  sum  of  all  villanies,'  since  his  return." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "and  the  people  here  explain 
it  by  saying,  '  O,  he  was  feted,  and  flattered/ 

"  Yes,"  she  continued,  "  some  of  our  people  will  sacri 
fice  their  confidence  in  man  or  angel,  rather  than  believe 
anything  good  about  slavery." 

I  said  to  her,  "  Add  the  Bible  to  those  witnesses,  Mrs. 
North." 

"  Husband,"  said  she,  "  please  reach  me  that  long,  thin, 
brown-covered  book  on  the  what-not."  She  then  read 
an  extract  from  the  sixty-third  page  ;  it  was  a  book 
by  one  now  deceased,  called,  "  Experience  as  a  Minis 
ter": 

"  I  had  not  been  long  a  minister,  before  I  found  this 
worship  of  the  Bible  as  a  fetish  hindering  me  at  every 
step.  If  I  declared  the  Constancy  of  Nature's  Laws,  and 
sought  therein  great  argument  for  the  Constancy  of  God, 
all  the  miracles  came  and  held  their  mythologic  finger  up. 
Even  Slavery  was  '  of  God,'  for  the  divine  statutes  in  the 
Old  Testament  admitted  the  principle  that  man  might 
own  a  man,  as  well  as  a  garden  or  an  ox,  and  provided 
for  the  measure.  Moses  and  the  Prophets  were  on  its 
side  ;  and  neither  Paul  of  Tarsus,  nor  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
uttered  a  direct  word  against  it." 

"  But  here  is  the  sun  !  "  said  I. 

"  "We  are  all  more  cheerful,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  than 
we  were  when  he  left  us ;  for  we  have  been  able  to  con- 
12* 


270  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

verse  on  a  trying  and  perplexing  subject  with  good  feel 
ings." 

"  Now,"  said  I,  "  here  is  the  Southern  lady's  letter,  which 
has  given  occasion  to  all  our  conversation." 

"  It  has  also  introduced  us,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  to  that 
goose,  Gustavus,  and  to  his  good  aunt." 

"  What  shall  I  say  to  the  Southern  lady,"  said  I,  "  if  I 
write  to  her  father  ?  " 

"  Tell  her,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  that  if  she  comes  to  the 
North  she  must  come  directly  to  our  house  and  make  it 
her  home.  If  you  will  allow  me,  I  will  put  a  note  into 
your  envelope  to  that  effect.  I  shall  beg  her  to  bring 
Kate  with  her.  Wouldn't  I  love  to  see  Kate  !  " 

"  My  dear,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  do  you  know  what  a  time 
there  would  be  if  the  lady  should  bring  Kate  with  her  ?  " 

"  The  good  time  coming !  I  think  it  would  be,"  said 
his  wife,  "  to  see  the  Southern  lady  and  her  Kate  under 
our  roof." 

"  Why,"  said  he,  "  we  should  all  have  to  go  to  court  ?  " 

"  Well,  that  would  be  interesting,"  said  she  ;  "  but  for 
what  ?  " 

"  Why,"  said  he,  "  you  know  that  this  is  free  soil : 
Kate  is  a  slave  ;  she  can  have  her  freedom  for  nothing 
if  she  comes  here.  Some  of  our  Massachusetts  gentle 
men  are  as  chivalrous  and  attentive  to  Southern  colored 
people,  as  our  good  friend  tells  us  Southern  gentlemen 
are  to  a  white  woman :  a  committee  would  wait  on  Kate, 
with  an  officer  of  the  peace,  and  invite  her  to  visit  the 
court-house  with  them,  to  be  presented  with  '  freedom  ' ; 
and  Kate's  mistress  must  go  with  her,  to  show  that  she 
is  not  restraining  Kate  of  her  liberty." 

"  Why,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  if  I  could  not  be  allowed, 
in  visiting  Sharon  Springs,  to  take  Judith  with  me  to 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  271 

give  me  my  baths,  because  she  is  free,  I  should  call 
it  barbarism.  Who  was  that  gentleman  that  broke  his 
collar-bone  and  sent  to  you,  husband,  JLo  get  him  a 
nurse  ?  " 

Mr.  North  said  it  was  a  student  in  a  medical  school, 
from  the  South. 

"  Did  you  find  him  a  nurse  ?  "  said  she. 

"Yes,"  he  replied;  "but  he  groaned  and  said,  'Mother 
wanted  to  send  on  my  mammy  that  nursed  me,  but  your 
laws  will  not  allow  her  to  come.  Now,'  said  he,  *  mam 
my  will  not  tamper  with  your  servants  here,  and  entice 
them  away,  as  free  colored  men  might  do  to  our  slaves 
if  they  landed  at  the  South  from  your  vessels.  O,  mam 
my,'  said  he,  *  if  I  had  your  'arbs  and  your  nursing,  what 
a  pleasure  it  would  be  to  be  sick.' " 

"  Poor  fellow  ! "  said  Mrs.  North.  "  What  did  you 
say  to  him  ?  " 

"  0,"  said  he,  "  I  told  him  that  we  lived  under  differ 
ent  institutions ;  and  that  when  we  are  among  the  Ro 
mans  we  must  do  as  the  Romans  do." 

"  Well,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  if  all  such  prohibitions 
are  not  downright  impertinence,  then  I  will  give  up." 

"  It's  the  law  of  the  land,  here,"  said  her  husband. 

"  Is  there  no  '  Higher  Law'  in  such  a  case  ? "  said  she. 
"  '  Higher  Law,'  I  believe,  is  sometimes  the  rule  in  Mas 
sachusetts." 

"  Some  of  our  most  estimable  colored  fellow-citizens 
would  attend  her,"  said  I,  "  and  tempt  her  by  their  own 
prosperity  and  happiness  in  freedom,  at  the  North,  to 
cast  in  her  lot  with  them  and  abandon  her  Southern 
home,  her  mistress,  and  her  little  charge,  Susan  ;  and  her 
own  little  Cygnet's  grave.  They  would  send  her,  if  she 


272  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

wished,  free  of  charge,  to  Canada,  and  leave  her  there. 
She  could  be  perfectly  free." 

"  Now,  what  is  all  this  for  ?  "  said  Mrs.  North.  "  Do 
the  people  here  really  believe  that  Kate  is  '  oppressed  ?  ' 
that  her  mistress  is  a  tyrant  ?  that  Kate  is  a  victim  to  the 
'  sum  of  all  villanies  ? '  that  she  suffers  an  '  enormous 
wrong?'  that  her  mistress  does  her  a  'stupendous  injus 
tice  ? '  If  they  wish  for  objects  of  charity,  and  will  go 
with  me,  I  will  engage  to  supply  them  with  '  the  op 
pressed  '  in  any  quantity,  with  some  of  '  the  down-trodden  ' 
also." 

"  But,  my  dear  Mrs.  North,"  said  I,  "  '  'tis  distance  lends 
enchantment  to  the  view.'  Besides,  to  get  a  slave  away 
from  a  Southerner  is  worth  unspeakably  more  to  the 
cause  of  human  happiness  than  to  help  scores  of  North 
ern  people." 

"  But  to  be  serious,"  said  Mr.  North,  "  we  are  afraid 
that  slave-holding  may  get  a  foothold  in  Massachusetts ; 
so  we  have  to  challenge  every  one  who  comes  here  with 
a  slave,  to  show  proof  that  he  or  she  is  not  holding  the  ser 
vant  to  involuntary  servitude  among  us." 

"  But,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  are  the  people  so  consci 
entiously  fearful  lest  bondage  should  get  established  here 
in  Massachusetts  ?  Is  that  the  true  reason  for  hurrying 
every  colored  servant,  who  travels  here  with  his  or  her 
invalid  master  or  mistress,  before  a  court  to  know  if  he  or 
she  would  not  prefer  to  quit  the  family  and  the  South  ? 
It  seems  to  me  we  are  sadly  wanting  in  good  man 
ners." 

"  Now,  please  do  not  smile  at  your  good  wife  for  her 
simplicity,  Mr.  North,"  said  I,  "  for  I  suppose  that  you  are 
thinking,  What  have  'good  manners'  to  do  with  the 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  273 

*  cause  of  freedom  '  ?  She  is  right  in  her  impressions  ;  a 
lady's  sense  of  propriety  against  all  the  world." 

"  Do  publish  the  Southern  lady's  letter  by  all  means," 
said  Mrs.  North. 

"  How  surprised  she  would  be,"  said  I,  "  to  see  it  in 
print,  or  to  know  that  it  had  wandered  here,  and  was  tak 
ing  part  in  the  discussions  about  slavery." 

"  The  letter,"  said  Mrs.  North,  "  would,  just  now,  seern 
like  Noah's  poor  little  dove,  wandering  over  wrecks  and 
desolations." 

"  True,"  said  I,  u  and  to  finish  the  illusion,  it  might 
come  back  to  her  after  many  days,  and  lo !  in  its  mouth 
an  olive-leaf  plucked  off!  " 

"  Give  my  love  to  her,"  said  Mrs.  North ;  "  her  letter 
has  made  me  a  better  and  happier  woman.  Now  I  love 
my  whole  country.  I  do  justice  in  my  feelings  to  hun 
dreds  of  thousands  whom  I  have  hitherto  regarded  as 
perverse.  I  now  see  God's  wonder-working  providence 
in  connection  with  the  slave.  It  seems  plain  to  me  in 
what  way  the  Union  can  be  saved,  and  that  is,  by  the 
general  prevalence  at  the  North  of  such  views  about 
slavery  as  the  very  best  people  at  the  South  declare  to  be 
just  and  right." 

"  You  would  be  deemed  simple  for  saying  that,  Mrs. 
North,"  said  I.  "  But  you  are  right." 

u  Three  tilings,"  she  continued,  after  a  moment's  pause, 
"  are  more  strongly  impressed  on  my  mind ;  please  see  if 
I  am  right :  —  That  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  is 
not  in  itself  sinful ;  That  good  people  at  the  South  feel 
toward  injustice  and  cruelty  precisely  like  us ;  and,  That 
Southern  Christians  can  correct  all  the  evils  in  slavery, 
or  abolish  it,  if  necessary,  better  without  our  aid  than 
with  it." 


274  THE  SABLE  CLOUD. 

"  Mrs.  North,"  said  I,  "  unless  we  accept  those  propo 
sitions,  the  North  and  South  never  can  live  together  in 
peace ;  and  if  we  separate,  the  Northern  conscience  will 
be  in  a  worse  condition  than  ever,  and  we  shall  have  long 
wars." 

"  It  is  a  marvellous  thing  to  me,"  said  she,  "  as  I  now 
view  it,  that  our  good  Christian  people  here  are  not  willing 
to  confide  in  that  which  good  Southern  Christian  people 
say  about  slavery.  We  should  trust  their  judgments,  their 
moral  sentiments,  their  consciences,  on  any  other  subject. 
How  is  it  that  when  men  and  women,  who  are  the  excel 
lent  of  the  earth,  tell  us  the  results  of  their  observation, 
experience,  and  reflections,  with  regard  to  slavery,  we 
treat  them  as  we  do  ?  When  ill-mannered  people,  who 
must  be  vituperative  and  saucy  to  every  body  and  in 
every  thing,  behave  thus,  it  is  not  surprising;  but  I  can 
not  explain  why  truly  good  men  should  not  either  adopt 
the  deliberate  sentiments  of  good  people  at  the  South,  or 
at  least  consent  to  leave  the  subject,  if  beyond  their  faith 
or  discernment,  to  the  responsibility  of  Southern  Chris 
tians.  I  condemn  myself  in  saying  this.  But  having 
myself  been  converted,  I  have  hope  for  everybody." 

During  this  talk,  Mr.  North  was  affected  somewhat  as 
he  said  his  wife  was  when  he  first  read  the  Southern  la 
dy's  letter  to  her.  He  was  a  little  incoherent  by  reason 
of  his  emotions  ;  but  he  made  out  to  say  something  about 
the  sweetness  and  the  strength  of  reconciled  affections, 
and  of  the  happiness  which  there  would  be  when  it  should 
be  proclaimed  that  the  North  and  the  South  are  once 
more  friends. 

"  What  is  your  whole  name,  Mrs.  North  ?  "  said  I ; 
"  for  I  shall  wish  to  speak  of  you  to  the  Southern  lady,  if 
I  write  to  her  father." 


THE  SABLE  CLOUD.  275 

"  My  Christian  name,"  said  she,  "  is  Patience." 
"  PATIENCE  NORTH  !  "  I  said  to  myself,  once  or  twice, 
as  I  stood  at  the  parlor  door.     I  was  musing  upon  the 
name  perhaps  ten  or  fifteen  seconds,  and  when  I  looked 
up,  they  were  each  both  smiling  at  me  and  crying. 

We  shook  hands,  and  I  went  my  way. 


THE    END. 


By  the  same  Author. 
A    SOUTH    SIDE    VIEW    OF    SLAVERY. 

Fourth  Edition.    Price,  75  cents. 


NOTICES. 

From  the  Presbyterian  Witness,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

Upon  the  whole  we  regard  it  as  the  most  calm,  truthful, 
mauly,  and  sensible  book  that  has  ever  yet  appeared  from  the 
Northern  or  Southern  press,  on  the  subject  of  Slavery. 

From  Chancellor  JOHNSTOX,  'South  Carolina. 
I  have  read  Dr.  Adams's  production  with  care,  and,  besides, 
I  have  the  opinion  of  one  or  two  friends  in  whose  hands  I  placed 
it ;  and  our  unanimous  judgment  is,  it  is  one  of  the  best  works, 
if  not  the  very  best,  on  the  subject  to  which  it  relates,  that  has 
emanated  from  the  press.  It  manifests  exceeding  candor,  dis 
criminating  and  penetrating  observation,  and  an  uncommon  pow 
er  of  setting  the  conclusions  to  which  he  has  come,  as  well  as 
the  reasons  of  them,  in  a  clear  light.  He  has  shown  himself  a 
true  philanthropist,  a  just  man,  a  genuine  patriot,  and  a  sincere 
and  fearless  lover  of  the  truth.  His  sagacity  in  so  completely 
seeing  through  the  workings  of  a  social  system  so  entirely  dif 
ferent  from  any  that  had  ever  before  fallen  under  his  personal 
observation,  is  indeed  wonderful.  The  whole  country,  North 
and  South,  the  whole  of  this  great  Federal  Republic,  owes  a 
deep  and  inextinguishable  obligation  to  Dr.  Adams  for  his  noble 
effort  and  his  masterly  performance  of  it. 

From  Hon.  RUFUS  CHOATE,  Boston. 

It  is  a  most  manly,  conscientious,  and  admirable  testimony, 
soothing,  wise,  and  wholly  right.  I  admire  its  spirit,  its  Chris 
tianity,  its  nationality,  its  love  of  white  men  and  black  men, 
and  I  am  most  proud  of  its  author. 

From  REV.  DR.  SPRAGUE,  in  the  Puritan  Recorder. 
No  candid  reader  will  doubt  that  the  author  intended  to  make 
a  fair  report  of  both  the  good  and  the  evil  of  Slavery,  as  it  came 
under  his  observation,  without  regard  either  to  the  partialities  or 
prejudices  of  other  people.  lie  was  evidently  a  careful  observer, 
and  had  good  opportunities  for  forming  an  accurate  judgment. 
He  has  written  with  marked  ability  and  exemplary  moderation, 


2  NOTICES. 

and  in  a  deeply  serious  and  earnest  tone,  which  we  think  must 
secure  to  the  work  an  extensive  circufation.  It  is  strongly 
monitory  both  to  the  North  and  to  the  South.  It  is  a  model 
in  point  of  style. 

From  REV.  HENRY  NEILL,  Detroit,  Michigan,  (formerly  of 

Lenox,  Mass.) 

I  know  of  no  achievement  equal  to  it,  in  the  last  ten  years,  in 
the  field  of  morals  or  of  intellect.  And  it  is  because  of  the  evi 
dence  which  it  gives  that  an  American  mind  can  be  sufficiently 
controlled  by  candor  and  religion  to  look  at  even  the  subject  of 
Slavery  without  passion,  and  with  manifest  intent  to  know  and 
announce  the  truth,  that  the  book  stands  out  to  me  not  only 
above  other  books,  but  above  most  other  mental  products  on 
that  subject. 

From  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 

There  is  no  danger  that  people  at  the  North  will  fall  in  love 
with  the  peculiar  institution;  but  if  they  learn  to  look  with 
more  charity  and  forbearance  on  their  Southern  brethren,  no 
harm  will  be  done.  It  is  not  amiss  to  have  a  sensible  man 
show  that  there  are  some  compensating  circumstances  in  the 
system. 

From  the  Boston  Transcript. 

"We  are  glad  the  work  is  published.  There  is  an  air  of  sin 
cerity  and  candor  in  the  chapters.  The  views  of  honest  men 
of  all  sects  are  much  heeded. 

From  REV.  DR.  PRIME,  of  the  New  York  Observer. 
I  regard  it  as  incomparably  the  best  book  the  Slavery-question 
has  ever  called  forth. 

From  Hon.  Judge  ROST,  Louisiana,  (Convention  Speech  at  Baton 

Rouge.)  « 

It  should  be  read  by  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the 
country. 


By  the  same  Author. 

OUR    FAMILY    OF    STATES: 

A  PHI  BETA  KAPPA  ORATION. 
Price,  15  cents. 


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